A Half-breed's Life 3: Cat & Mouse - Saiyan Style
by Xj9
Summary: Gohan, Vegeta, Raditz, Turles and Nappa travel the universe for six months in order to do intense training. Though they weren't planning on making this a vacation, their training trip soon turns into one universal game of cat and mouse. Confronted by wanted posters,high rewards for their heads and different bounty hunters,the saiyans realize that someone does not just escape Frieza
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys and gals! ^^**

 **On June 27, 2009 I posted my first chapter of A Half-breed's Life part 1. Back then I didn't know I would be spending the next six years obsessed with telling my own stories, created somewhere deep in my own crazy mind.**

 **It's my six year anniversary as an amateur writer and I'm going to celebrate it with you all. Starting today with blasting off A Half-breed's Life 3: Cat & Mouse Saiyan Style, and continuing the party throughout the week, but that's still a surprise ;) **

**Thank you for being patient and for still being here. Thank you for your support and thank you for living through the journeys of the characters of A half-breed's life. It's been a rocky road and we're not done yet!**

 **Enjoy!**

 **Chapter 1. A Half-breed's Life on the Run.**

"Heads up!"

An energy blast shot right passed the young saiyan warrior. The half-saiyan made a face, considering how much damage that attack could have done had Gohan been in its path.

"Be careful where you throw those things!" Gohan called, frowning at his comrades.

His uncle, Turles, shrugged. "It's your job to stay out of the way." He called in response before returning to his fight with Vegeta.

Gohan frowned at his uncle's reply but he realized he had more urgent problems to worry about. One of these problems was the man now floating in front of him.

"Getting tired already, nephew?" Raditz sent his young half-saiyan nephew a smirk.

The nineteen-year-old waved his comment away. "I will never be tired of beating you up." The young warrior attacked his uncle head on.

Sounds of fighting could be heard all around them. They'd been at it for hours and hours. Gohan figured they'd been fighting for at least a day, maybe more. Who was counting? They would keep going until they could fight no more. That's what he loved about this trip. They could literally spend all day fighting and nobody would complain about it. They had no other tasks to take care of. Okay, they had to clean the ship sometimes and they occasionally stopped fighting to clear the ship and make sure everything was in order before they would start another training session or a massive lunch. It was the perfect life for a saiyan.

Gohan was in his super saiyan level, easily punching Raditz off his feet. While Raditz was recovering from Gohan's most recent assault, Nappa attacked the young warrior. The two exchange punches at high speed, trying to damage the other as much as possible. It didn't take Raditz long to rush back in the match.

Gohan could easily take the two warriors at the same time. They could not transform just yet so Gohan was a lot stronger. He might be the youngest, but they had nothing on him when it came to pure strength.

"We're done!" Vegeta called after a few hours.

The others all slowly stopped fighting and they landed on the ground. There Vegeta handed out bottles of water and towels.

"Good job, everyone." Vegeta stated in a calm voice. "We'll rest a few hours, eat something and then we'll get back to it. Change your uniform. You all smell horrifying."

Gohan showed a small smirk at this last remark. What did Vegeta expect? They'd been in the same windowless room for days, fighting all day, every day. Nobody could smell nice after an affair like that.

He followed the others out the room. They all had their own room, which was heaven. Gohan was not used to having his own room, all to himself. Recently, he usually shared his room with his girlfriend, Katy. Not that he disliked sharing his room with her; he loved wrapping his arms around her frame every evening. She did not join them on this trip though, so Gohan had a room to himself.

While Gohan took off his clothing so that he could get into his shower cabin, he thought about the roller-coaster of a life he'd been living until now. Ten years ago, he would not have expected to be here, on a ship, after spending almost a year on earth.

Gohan was born on planet earth. Fifteen years ago, when the boy was only four years old, his uncle Raditz came to planet earth to recruit his younger brother Goku, Gohan's father. Raditz and the others saiyans worked for the Planet Trade Organization, a company that sold planets to the highest bidder.

As a baby, Goku had been sent to planet earth in order to purge it of any life and get it ready for sale. However, Goku hit his head, forgot about his mission, and was raised on planet earth as an earthling.

Goku refused to come with Raditz, and after a massive fight between Goku, Raditz and Piccolo, the two Z-fighters were killed, and Raditz decided to take Gohan as a consolation prize.

Gohan spent the following ten years in a training camp where he was taught how to fight and how cruel life could really be to young children in a man's world. When Gohan was fourteen, he was picked up from the camp by Vegeta, Raditz and Nappa and they taught the young warrior how to purge planets and how to live without the guilt caused by committing murders on a daily basis.

For a little more than two years, Gohan and his comrades purged planet after planet, murdering the inhabitants and cleaning up the planets. As time went by, the warriors warmed up to each other, and once Gohan was drafted for war, he was somewhat sad to leave the others.

Gohan spent half a year fighting for a company he hated, before he was tricked by Zarbon, another hated name in Gohan's memory, accused of treason, and locked in a dungeon, where he was tortured for information about his alleged enemy employee.

To Gohan's surprise, his comrades came to his rescue, saving Gohan from the dungeon and nursing him back to health while they were hiding in a large abandoned hospital. However, they were discovered and captured.

Gohan transformed for the first time that day. They all knew the legend of the super saiyan. The warrior of legend was supposed to be stronger than any other warrior in the universe. Vegeta always thought he would be the one to achieve the super saiyan transformation, but Gohan was there first. Gohan transformed, killed Zarbon and managed to break them all out.

Now, they were on the run. Frieza, the mean leader of the Planet Trade Organization, was angered by their betrayal and they were sure the man was coming after them. Therefore, they spent the last few months hiding on planet Earth.

This mission was meant as an intense training, which it definitely was. Gohan's muscles were constantly burning, mainly because he could never really rest for a long period of time. He did not mind though. The pain he felt in his muscles was a good kind of pain. It made him feel alive.

The young warrior was still rubbing his wet hair with a towel as he walked into the living room. Vegeta and Turles were already there, which Gohan expected. They were always quick, efficient with their time.

Gohan approached the kitchen, where Vegeta was busy preparing something to eat. By the size of the pan, Gohan figured the man was creating supper for them all.

"Need help?" Gohan offered.

"No. Go drip somewhere else, and not above my food." Vegeta responded.

Gohan shrugged and walked back to the couch on which Turles was sitting. The kitchen was an open kitchen, mainly just a couple of kitchen machines leaning against the wall and a dinner table standing near it.

Gohan decided to move to the window and he looked out, thinking about planet earth, about his girlfriend, his parents and friends. The young warrior realized that he was starting to feel sad. He imagined his parents sitting on the couch, playing a game with Goten and Katy. A fire crackling in the fireplace and the scent of hot cocoa was drifting through the room. They were all there and he wasn't. He could not be there.

Gohan felt a strange sensation in his stomach. A cold and heavy feeling. His eyes pricked as tears started to form, out of his control. The boy blinked them away and shook his head, but the feeling that his body wanted to cry was still there. What the hell was going on with him? He never felt like this before.

"Are you okay?" Raditz approached from the doorway.

Gohan was happy to have a distraction. "Yes. I'm fine." He took a deep breath. "Are you okay?" He countered, turning to his uncle, "After the beating I gave you today?"

"Don't overestimate your own strength, kiddo." Raditz smirked as he leaned on the windowsill with his hands. "I bounce back easily."

"Half-breed!" Vegeta called over. "Get the table ready."

"I thought you said you didn't need any help." Gohan called back.

"Are we being sassy? Cause I don't appreciate that kind of behaviour coming from you." Vegeta sent the young warrior a glare over his shoulder.

Gohan showed a smile as he walked to the cabinets that contained the plates and glasses. Raditz offered to help him and together they got the table ready for dinner.

During supper, Gohan addressed the problem that had been bothering the past few days. "Vegeta? I was looking at our coordinates and I noticed that we're rather far from the Milky Way. I figured we would leave the solar system but I didn't expect you to take it this far."

Vegeta chewed on his food for a while before swallowing and answering Gohan's question. "We had to leave the Milky Way. The planets there are pretty useless."

"How do you know?"

"I know everything." Vegeta grabbed his wine glass. "There are some planets we can visit near here. We can do some hunting, buy some resources, do some sight-seeing." The man sent the boy a smirk. "Why? Already feeling homesick? Longing to your mommies arms?"

The half-saiyan ignored the sarcastic jab. "So why are we still going on high speed?" He was not easily distracted from his questions this time.

Vegeta placed his glass back on the table. "We only have a month, remember. If we want to get anywhere we have to hurry it up."

"But… Shouldn't we be turning back?" Gohan placed his lower arms on the table so he could lean on them. "Or at least slow down or turn so that we'll be travelling back in a circle. Now we're just flying away from planet earth."

"Why don't you leave the flying to the ones who can actually steer the ship?" Vegeta suggested, raising an eyebrow at the young warrior. "Or do you not trust me?"

"I'd put my life in your hands any day." Gohan responded, tilting his head sideways as he met Vegeta's gaze steadily. "However, after all this time I learned to catch the signals when you're trying to keep something from me. I've had a lot of practice."

"I hope this won't go into the you're-an-experienced-adult-now thing again." Vegeta leaned back on his seat. "I think we covered that enough lately, haven't we?"

Gohan's calm expression nearly broke because of Vegeta's taunt. Not long ago, back on planet earth, Gohan tried to overthrow Vegeta by challenging the man to a brief fight for authority. Vegeta won, effectively putting Gohan back in his place. This did not mean that Gohan would have to stay in the subordinate position forever. He could try again once he was ready, but the half-saiyan knew he had to grow stronger, more mature, before he would succeed.

Gohan was the first one to break eye-contact, lowering his gaze from Vegeta's dark eyes to the plate in front of him. "Never mind." He muttered, grabbing his fork and pricking his foot.

Raditz stretched his arms. "What do you guys say we watch a movie before bed?" He suggested.

"Did you download that bikini contest?" Turles asked. Raditz nodded in response. "I say we watch that."

"Good idea." Vegeta pushed his chair back and got up. The man grabbed his plate and cutlery but changed his mind and placed them back on the table. "Half-breed. Clean up, won't you?" He stated.

Gohan looked up only to receive a wink from the older man. The others also placed their plates back on the table and got up. Raditz patted his nephew on the shoulder before leaving with the others. Gohan let out a sigh as he got up and started gathering the plates, glasses and cutlery.

Several hours later Raditz entered the control room. His eyes briefly scanned the room, his dark orbs lighting up when he saw the person he was searching for.

Gohan was standing in front of the control panel. He was leaning on the control panel, staring out the window.

"You didn't come over to watch the contest anymore." Raditz stated once he was close enough.

Gohan was still staring ahead. "I'm not interested in other women." He muttered.

"You don't have to be interested in them. You can just…" The man took a deep breath as he searched for the words. "… appreciate them." Gohan did not respond so Raditz stepped closer. "Hey, Vegeta's just making sure you know your place. You should have expected that."

A small smile appeared on Gohan's face. "Don't worry. I can take a little bullying." He said, lowering his gaze to the control panel. The young warrior studied the many buttons, wondering which button would tell him what he wanted to know.

"Then what's the problem?" Raditz asked. "What's keeping you down?" The first week into their trip everything was fine, but suddenly Gohan's mood turned for the worse. The boy became silent, staring out the window all the time, showing forced smiles in response to their jokes, and even allowing Vegeta to bring him down without putting up a fight. That was what concerned the others the most. Gohan always put up a fight, no matter how useless or hopeless, he fought for it. The argument during supper was the best fight Gohan put up all week.

Gohan considered answering Raditz truthfully, but he decided not to. "Nothing." He said instead. "You'll consider me foolish."

"Try me."

The half-saiyan pressed his lips together, considering the pros and cons of telling Raditz the truth. "I miss them." Gohan muttered after taking a deep breath. "I miss all of them. So much. Katy, my mom, my brother and even my annoying father." Justin was a good friend of his and he missed his friend in a healthy manner, but it was different for his family and especially his girlfriend, the love of his life.

Raditz lowered his gaze. He could hardly remember what it was like to miss his family, that's how long he'd had to go without them. He honestly did not want to remember how he felt when he just lost his entire planet, his entire family.

"You'll see them again soon." Raditz said, looking at the half-saiyan. The boy was just a little shorter than he was and Raditz figured the boy would not get any taller anymore. "They're not gone forever."

"I know." Gohan nodded. "I'm just not used to this feeling." He had to miss his family from age four to age sixteen, so around age six he'd forgotten what it was like to be homesick. He forgot what it was like to have a family and to be away from them.

"Can I… Do anything?"

"Not really." Gohan responded. "I think I just need to ride it out."

"I'm here if you want to talk." Raditz said. "Or complain or anything."

Gohan smiled in response. "I know."

The two looked to the doorway when Vegeta's voice sounded from somewhere inside the ship. "Oh, half-breed. Come here for a moment."

The half-saiyan took a deep breath and looked up at his uncle. "Round thirty-five." He said before turning and heading for the doorway.

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

 **A few days later**

"You need to guard your left side more carefully." Vegeta tapped on the screen of the laptop with his finger. They recorded their training sessions so they could study their own fighting style. Vegeta studied their training and made notes for every soldier in his squad. It was his task to help his squad members grow and evolve.

"Right."

Vegeta tapped on the screen and they watched the video until Vegeta pressed on the touch-screen again. "What went wrong here?" The screen was now showing Gohan and Vegeta together. The Gohan on the screen just handed out a major punch to the other warrior.

Gohan stared at the screen for a moment. "Something went wrong?" He asked. All he saw was a successful punch.

Vegeta used two fingers on the screen to zoom in on Gohan and made the video rewind a bit. They watched the brief moment but Gohan did not notice anything strange. He glanced at his squad leader.

"Your tail." Vegeta made the video rewind and played it again. Gohan now noticed how on the screen his tail tightened around his waist before he powered up and launched the punch. The half-saiyan made an "o" with his mouth.

"Do I do that every time I power up?"

Vegeta nodded. "Every time you plan on launching a powerful attack, your tail tightens around your waist. I'm not sure how long you've been doing it but it's worked into your system pretty well." He explained as he wrote something down in his notebook. "You need to get rid of the tendency."

"Right." Gohan wrote it down too. If someone worked out that tendency, the enemy could easily read Gohan's attacks and that would not be good. The boy chewed on his lower lip as he thought about this.

"We should have picked up on it earlier." Vegeta responded, frowning. "We let ourselves lose our focus."

Gohan lowered his gaze to the video. "You noticed it now. Better late than never, right?"

"Hmm." Vegeta pushed off from the table and grabbed the laptop. "You'd better do some meditation to increase the awareness of your body and its functions." He stated. "We have a couple of hours before supper and after that I want to have a collective spar. I'll tell the others to keep an eye on your tail during the fight."

Gohan made a face at the prospect of spending several hours in meditation mode. He considered it one of the most boring things he could do. Vegeta noticed the expression on Gohan's face. "Sometimes," he drawled, "we have to do things we don't want to do. That's life." He turned and walked away.

The half-saiyan scoffed. That was definitely his life. Doing things he did not want to do. The young warrior turned and headed for the oxygen room. He considered that room one of the most comfortable rooms in the ship.

The combination of the plants and the gentle zooming of the oxygen system created a serene sensation inside him. The young warrior opened the door and was surprised when he realized that he was not the only one who planned on meditating here.

Turles made an annoyed sound. "Can I never have a quiet moment here?" He complained.

"I'm sorry. I was planning on meditating here as well. Do you want me to leave?" Gohan figured Turles was here first and the half-saiyan had no right to throw his uncle out.

The man shrugged. "I don't mind as long as you're quiet."

Gohan nodded and closed the door behind him. After this he found a place on the ground, crossed his legs over each other, straightened his back and closed his eyes. The oxygen room was the size of a basketball field and it was three stories high. The two warriors were sitting on the balcony of the third story.

Gohan took a deep breath, focusing on how the fresh air filled his lungs. This was something he could really enjoy. However, his mind was plagued with questions. He tried to push them away and focus on his breathing. He even tried to let them run their natural course and allow them to fade away but nothing of the sort happened.

The half-saiyan opened his eyes. "Turles?"

"I thought you were going to be quiet."

"I have a question to ask you." Gohan said.

Turles opened his eyes. "Shoot." He responded, deciding that Gohan would only be able to really meditate once he got the answer to his questions.

"Did you ever try to overthrow Vegeta?"

Turles briefly sensed around the ship to make sure Vegeta was not close enough to overhear their conversation before he responded. "I did actually. Several times."

Gohan was surprised. This was the first he heard of that. "You challenged him?"

"Of course. I'm pretty much as strong as Vegeta. I have the right to challenge him." Turles explained. "I first tried it when I was only ten years old but Vegeta threw me down easily." He showed a small smirk.

"And after that?"

"Just one time after that." Turles said thoughtfully. "Vegeta went to the training camp for a couple of years and while he was gone Nappa was in charge of our squad. When Vegeta returned, I found it difficult to accept his sudden authority. Nappa automatically gave up his position to Vegeta. However, Vegeta was only a few years older than I was. I hadn't seen him for years and now I was supposed to bow down to some kid who was still a teenager just like me?" The man used this moment to stretch his arms. "I resented it from the moment he arrived and I tried to challenge him once. He beat me again. After that I was drafted for war and a few years later you showed up."

"The opportunity did not arise anymore?" Gohan guessed.

"Exactly."

"Are you going to try it again one day?"

"Maybe." Turles shrugged. "For now I'm fine with the way things are. Besides, we have more important matters to focus on."

Gohan let out a sigh as he thought about Frieza. The lord of the universe was out there somewhere. He was eager for revenge on the five saiyan warriors and their friends. The half-saiyan was aware of Turles's eyes, studying him silently. Gohan knew he was the odd-one-out in their squad. The others had been working together for years before Gohan arrived. They had an extensive history that started long before Gohan was even born.

The young warrior suddenly felt very foolish. Vegeta had been leading their squad since the man was only five years old. He'd been a squad leader for longer than Gohan had been alive. Vegeta dealt with Nappa and Raditz and even managed to tame the allegedly mischievous little Turles. Looking at the calm man now, one would not easily guess that he'd once been a wicked little creature. However, Raditz secretly told Gohan that Turles was hard to control when he first joined the others at five years old. That was one of the reasons why Vegeta decided to bring Gohan to the camp when he was only four. They did not want the bother of bringing up yet another annoying child.

Gohan let his body fall back until he was lying on the ground. He used his arms as a make-shift pillow and stared up at the ceiling.

"Penny for your thoughts." Turles stated cheerfully.

"Just a penny? You underestimate the importance of my thoughts."

"You're nineteen. Your thoughts are nothing more than babes, booze and sports." Turles responded, sending the young warrior a smirk.

Gohan made an effort to lift his head and sent his comrade a glare. The half-saiyan lowered his head back down and looked up at the ceiling again. "Do you think we'll survive the battle against Frieza?"

"Being morbid, are we?"

"Just realistic."

Turles shrugged once. "Doesn't really matter. All we can do is train our hardest and hope for the best." The man closed his eyes again. "So if you don't want Frieza to defeat you right away you'd better get rid of that tail tendency before we fight him."

Gohan sat up. "You noticed that, huh?" He muttered, feeling awkward for allowing himself to make such a mistake.

"We've all been slacking off. Not anymore." Turles still had his eyes closed. "Meditate with me, will you?"

Gohan nodded, sitting up straight and closing his eyes.

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

"Alright." Vegeta cracked his knuckles. "Is everyone ready?" The others all gave positive responses and Vegeta turned to the computer. "We're off."

The light in the room dimmed somewhat and the gravity level was set on 100. The five warriors adjusted their bodies to the new gravity. The robotic female voice of the computer counted down from ten to one.

Gohan focused his energy and slowly powered up. He clenched his fists in anticipation. The robotic voice finished the count down and everyone was silent for a moment. The world stopped as the warriors stared at each other, ready for action.

"Four."

Vegeta's head snapped up at the robotic voice and he jumped in the air. The man extended his hands and started sending blasts to the others. Gohan hastily jumped out of the way to avoid getting hit by the energy-attacks.

"Five."

Vegeta stopped firing blasts and looked around to find Raditz. The oldest third-class was already powering up and tried to hit the others with energy blasts now that his number was called.

Gohan considered this one of their more fun trainings. They all had a number. The computer was programed to randomly call out numbers from one to five. When one's number was called, that person was the attacker and the others had to avoid getting hit. It was the thrill of trying to hit the others, the haste of changing from attacker to runner and overall the excitement of the game.

"One."

The half-saiyan powered up and fired off several blasts. The young warrior smirked when a couple of his blasts hit the others. He always managed to hit at least one of them. He was faster than the others.

After their warm-up games, the saiyans were spread out, exercising their bodies. Aside from the grunts, bangs of heavy equipment and pained growls, there was no sound. Gohan often asked if they could put on some music but Vegeta refused, saying that they weren't exercising for fun but it was business. It was hard work. And music and hard work did not go together. That's what Vegeta maintained but Gohan found the silent room annoying.

The young warrior tightened his grip on the ropes. He strained his muscles, bit his lip and pulled his hands down, lifting the heavy weights that were connected to the other sides of the ropes. 5001. 5002. 5003. 5004.

Man, this was boring. He knew doing these drills was good for him. They helped him stay in shape and one could not always spar. The drills caused less damage and were overall easier to maintain for a long period of time. Still, Gohan's thoughts kept wandering. He thought about his home, about Katy. He tried communicating with her through their bond but they were too far apart. Apparently, even mental connections had their limits.

"Switch!"

Gohan slowly lowered the weights down to the ground before getting up from the chair. He walked over to where Nappa was still sitting on the ground. Nappa made a face at the half-saiyan. Gohan was not the only one who disliked doing drills. Gohan watched as Nappa walked to another area in the room. There, the man wedged his toes under some weights before lying down and starting to do sit-ups.

Gohan got on all-fours while he used his tail to lift a pack of heavy weights in the air. He placed the weights on his back. After this he assumed a plank position and started doing push-ups. One. Two. Three.

Why did he count them anyway? Vegeta was the one keeping time. Gohan glanced sideways to where Vegeta was now lifting the weights on Gohan's previous position. The half-saiyan briefly considered asking Vegeta if he could ditch this training session but common sense told him Vegeta would never agree to this.

Several hours later, Gohan was kneeling on the floor, rubbing a wet cloth over the ground. After a brief shower, Vegeta ordered Gohan to clean the training room. They did not want to train in the scent of their own sweat and blood.

The young warrior did not look up when he felt Nappa's power level approaching from the hallway. "Came to gloat?" The half-saiyan muttered sourly.

"Not really." Nappa walked closer. "I was wondering if you could help me stretch later?"

Nappa was getting older and it was becoming more difficult for him to stay flexible. All the adults considered flexibility to be one of the most important aspects of their physical health. They could not afford to lose a fight because they sprained something by making a wrong move.

Gohan sat up. "Sure." He did not mind helping Nappa out. The older warrior truthfully told Gohan that he preferred the half-saiyan to help him because Gohan was more likely to want to help for the sake of helping someone else out.

Gohan's comrades all seemed to agree that no matter how hard they tried to corrupt the half-saiyan, Gohan would always have a somewhat golden heart. The young warrior was not entirely sure whether to be pleased by that conclusion or not.

"Thanks." Nappa knelt down next to the young warrior. "Almost finished?"

"I'll bet Vegeta will have something else for me to do once I'm done so I'm not in a hurry." Gohan responded, frowning a bit.

"Good old, Vegeta." Nappa said cheerfully, looking over at the bucket. "It will be over soon. Just keep your head down. Make sure you don't make too many dominant tail gestures. Don't give him a reason to push you down again."

"I know." Gohan tossed the cloth in the bucket and blew out a sigh. "Raditz said the same thing."

"We know what's best, half-breed!" Nappa clapped him on the back cheerfully.

Gohan made a face. "Could you stop calling me that?"

"Oh come on, you've never had any problems with the nickname."

"Yes I did." Gohan complained. "I hate it. Why can't you call me by my real name?"

"If it really bothers you that much then why don't you fight for it?" Nappa suggested.

"Fight for it?" Gohan grabbed the cloth again and squeezed the water out of it. He figured he might as well continue his work while they conversed.

"Yeah. Challenge one of us. If you win, they have to call you by your real name. If they win, you have to do something for them. It's common for young saiyans to challenge their elders for something they want."

Gohan raised both his eyebrows. "I didn't know I could do that."

"It was funny that you went straight for Vegeta while it would have been a better strategy to go for one of the weaker ones among us. Work your way up like everyone else." Nappa yawned, placing his hand in front of his massive mouth.

Gohan lowered his gaze to the ground. "Funny." He muttered softly. Yet another aspect of his recent struggles that the others watched with amusement. The same went for Gohan's wish to be accepted by human society. A couple of months ago, they were all still back on earth. There, Gohan tried everything to commit to the human life. He attended school, did his homework, joined a basketball team and went out with human friends. Aside from that he tried to behave and dress like a human, much to the amusement of his comrades. They even created a hologram picture of Gohan in a black-tie outfit, which was happily standing on the window sill in the common room.

"You should try asking us for advice." Nappa suggested. "You might be an adult but you still have a lot to learn when it comes to saiyan traditions. It would not hurt to ask us something once in a while."

Gohan gave a slow shrug. "I didn't realize."

"Common mistake. You would think that by defeating the strongest of us, the others will automatically adjust and do as you say, but it's not that easy." Nappa explained. "Start low. Be careful. You're young. You still have all the time in the world."

"Ah, I was wondering why this was taking you so long." Vegeta's voice interrupted their conversation and they both looked up. "Nappa is distracting you."

"Guilty as charged!" Nappa responded cheerfully.

"Well, then you can help him if you're so eager to spend time with the boy." Vegeta crossed his arms over each other. "Hurry it up. I want to call a meeting soon and I'd rather you finish this before we meet."

"What about?" Gohan asked curiously.

"A planet is close. We can go there to earn some money." Vegeta responded. The man studied the floor for signs of dirt. "We're low on money and we have to be able to buy rations soon."

"Earn money?" Gohan asked, raising an eyebrow. "How are we going to earn money?"

"Easy." Vegeta's smirk told Gohan that the man was planning some devious. "We'll rob the richest families on the planet."

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

 **I hope you liked it!**

 **Please review and let me know what you think!**

 **Next time on A Half-breed's Life 3:**

The young warrior crossed his arms over each other to stop his hands from shaking. "You can fly the ship, right?" He asked, looking to Turles. His uncle nodded slowly. "Can you teach me?"

Turles did not return his glance. "Later. We have to go." He stated. "We have a planet to rob." The man smacked on Gohan's shoulder before walked over to the others.

 ****** DBZ ******

"You know how to fly a ship, right?" Gohan asked, smiling innocently.

"I have some basic knowledge." Raditz looked rather uncomfortable, which made Gohan wonder why.

"Can you teach me?"

"Maybe when we get back to the ship." Raditz responded vaguely. "We should focus on the mission for now."

 ****** DBZ *******

"Stop harassing the others with stupid questions." Vegeta ordered.

"Stupid questions? I need to learn how to fly a ship. Everyone else here knows how to and I don't." Gohan complained.

"Exactly. Everyone else knows how to fly a ship so you don't have to know." Vegeta responded. The man eyed their surroundings. "It's a waste of your time."

 ****** DBZ ******

Gohan grabbed the bag and turned to the doorway. He showed a surprised expression when a somewhat older woman got in his way. Gohan gave one look at her expensive clothing and concluded that she was another daughter of the owner of this castle. However, this one was ready to fight… with a small glowing tube?

The woman pressed on a button in the middle of the tube and two glowing beams erupted from the middle area, which instantly turned white. Gohan made an impressed "o" with his mind. "Oh, Katy would love to have that." He muttered to himself.

The half-saiyan grinned as he stepped closer to her and motioned for the woman to attack him.

 ****** DBZ ******

The full-blooded warrior studied the half-saiyan for a moment before turning to the young warrior fully. The man's tail lashed behind him and followed a similar pattern to Gohan's tail.

Gohan's tail gave a brief push upwards. Turles laughed in response, shaking his head afterwards. "Get lost, kid." He said, waving the young warrior away.

Gohan repeated the movement, the tip of his tail pointing upwards to the ceiling. Turles's smile disappeared from his face. "Maybe I should call Vegeta and let him help me show you what happens to children who make too dominant tail gestures for their own good."

"Can't handle me on your own?" Gohan responded, smirking at the man.

Turles eyed Gohan's tail. "Half-breed…"

"I want you to stop calling me that." Gohan interrupted. "I challenge you for my name. If I win, you will call me by my real name."

 ****** DBZ ******

"Morning." Gohan approached the man, studying Raditz's form in the push-up. The man's form was perfect, which meant the man just started. He was not exhausted into a terrible form just yet.

"Something the matter?"

"Yeah. Something is very much the matter." Gohan responded. Raditz noticed the hostility in Gohan's voice. The man stopped his push-ups and placed his knees on the ground so he could look up at his nephew.

"When were you planning on telling me that our trip is going to take a little longer than one month?"

 ****** DBZ ******

 **Until next time!**


	2. Chapter 2: Robbing a Planet-Saiyan Style

**Hey you!**

 **I'm glad to see you're still around. Let's get on with the second chapter!**

 **Last time on A Half-breed's Life 3:**

 _Vegeta placed his glass back on the table. "We only have a month, remember. If we want to get anywhere we have to hurry it up."_

" _But… Shouldn't we be turning back?" Gohan placed his lower arms on the table so he could lean on them. "Or at least slow down or turn so that we'll be travelling back in a circle. Now we're just flying away from planet earth."_

" _Why don't you leave the flying to the ones who can actually steer the ship?" Vegeta suggested, raising an eyebrow at the young warrior. "Or do you not trust me?"_

" _I'd put my life in your hands any day." Gohan responded, tilting his head sideways as he met Vegeta's gaze steadily. "However, after all this time I learned to catch the signals when you're trying to keep something from me. I've had a lot of practice."_

" _I hope this won't go into the you're-an-experienced-adult-now thing again." Vegeta leaned back on his seat. "I think we covered that enough lately, haven't we?"_

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 _Gohan did not respond so Raditz stepped closer. "Hey, Vegeta's just making sure you know your place. You should have expected that."_

 _A small smile appeared on Gohan's face. "Don't worry. I can take a little bullying." He said, lowering his gaze to the control panel. The young warrior studied the many buttons, wondering which button would tell him what he wanted to know._

" _Then what's the problem?" Raditz asked. "What's keeping you down?"_

" _I miss them." Gohan muttered after taking a deep breath. "I miss all of them. So much. Katy, my mom, my brother and even my annoying father."_

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 _Gohan was surprised. This was the first he heard of that. "You challenged Vegeta?"_

" _Of course. I'm pretty much as strong as Vegeta. I have the right to challenge him." Turles explained. "I first tried it when I was only ten years old but Vegeta threw me down easily." He showed a small smirk._

" _And after that?"_

" _Just one time after that." Turles said thoughtfully. "Vegeta went to the training camp for a couple of years and while he was gone Nappa was in charge of our squad. When Vegeta returned, I found it difficult to accept his sudden authority. Nappa automatically gave up his position to Vegeta. However, Vegeta was only a few years older than I was. I hadn't seen him for years and now I was supposed to bow down to some kid who was still a teenager just like me?" The man used this moment to stretch his arms. "I resented it from the moment he arrived and I tried to challenge him once. He beat me again. After that I was drafted for war and a few years later you showed up."_

" _The opportunity did not arise anymore?" Gohan guessed._

" _Exactly."_

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" _We know what's best, half-breed!" Nappa clapped him on the back cheerfully._

 _Gohan made a face. "Could you stop calling me that?"_

" _Oh come on, you've never had any problems with the nickname."_

" _Yes I did." Gohan complained. "I hate it. Why can't you call me by my real name?"_

" _If it really bothers you that much then why don't you fight for it?" Nappa suggested._

" _Fight for it?" Gohan grabbed the cloth again and squeezed the water out of it. He figured he might as well continue his work while they conversed._

" _Yeah. Challenge one of us. If you win, they have to call you by your real name. If they win, you have to do something for them. It's common for young saiyans to challenge their elders for something they want."_

 _Gohan raised both his eyebrows. "I didn't know I could do that."_

 **Thanks for the reviews on the first chapter!**

 **Let's move on!**

 **Chapter 2. Robbing a Planet – Saiyan Style**

The five saiyans gathered in the common room. Gohan watched curiously as Vegeta typed in the command to land.

"Can you teach me that?" The half-saiyan asked as he glanced sideways.

Vegeta did not return the glance but continued to focus on the screen in front of them. It showed the course their ship would take during the landing. The man grunted something in response while he looked down and punched in other numbers. Gohan watched as the coordinates on the screen changed in response to Vegeta's action.

"What did you do? Did you change the landing course? How?"

"I forgot how difficult it is to concentrate when there's a child on the ship." Vegeta stated without acknowledging the half-saiyan.

Gohan rolled his eyes but he understood the hint and stepped away from the control panel. The young warrior walked to a near window and watched the planet come closer. The ship shook gently when they penetrated the planet's ozone layer.

The half-saiyan was somewhat embarrassed when he realized that he still considered the landing scary. A chill ran down his spine every time the ship shook and his tail twitched nervously against his waist.

"It's a very strong ship." Turles stated as he stepped closer. Gohan glanced at his uncle. "Stronger than most I've been in."

Gohan smiled, realizing Turles was trying to calm him down. "It was built by capable hands." He responded, nodding. He did not know whether Turles saw how nervous Gohan was or if the man was just acting on the knowledge about the half-saiyan's fear of space traveling. Gohan did not mind travelling space. He just felt queasy every time they landed.

No matter how old he was, the landing always reminded him of his first time in a space pod fifteen years ago. The darkness, the fear, the shaking of the space pod as the four-year-old felt his entire world collapse, experiencing a tough landing for the first time.

The young warrior crossed his arms over each other to stop his hands from shaking. "You can fly the ship, right?" He asked, looking to Turles. His uncle nodded slowly. "Can you teach me?"

Turles did not return his glance. "Later. We have to go." He stated. "We have a planet to rob." The man smacked on Gohan's shoulder before walked over to the others.

The half-saiyan frowned thoughtfully. Turles avoided teaching? Usually, when Gohan asked Turles to teach him something, his uncle would go straight into teacher-mode, explaining why learning something was so important and already planning a teaching schedule. Now, Turles had enough time to at least throw out a few bits of information about the control panel, how to read their position etc, but he chose not to do it.

Gohan looked at Turles. The man was now talking to Raditz, his back turned to the half-saiyan. Gohan considered asking his uncle again but Vegeta interfered, telling the others to get ready for their trip.

"We need to be quick so instead of scouting the planet, I'd say we hit the first goal and bring back our loot. After that we rob a house in another country and come back here." Vegeta stated, looking around. "Once we hit the first house we leave someone behind here to keep an eye on our ship. It would be horribly useless if someone comes along and steals everything from our ship while we're out robbing someone else."

Gohan had to agree with that. The group lifted off and headed for their first raid. Gohan positioned himself next to Raditz and looked over at his uncle. "Hey Raditz." He started.

"Hmm?"

"You know how to fly a ship, right?" Gohan asked, smiling innocently.

"I have some basic knowledge." Raditz looked rather uncomfortable, which made Gohan wonder why.

"Can you teach me?"

"Maybe when we get back to the ship." Raditz responded vaguely. "We should focus on the mission for now."

"We're going to rob a house." Gohan made a face. "It's not rocket science. Come on, you can tell me a few things right? Like how do I read the coordinates?"

"Half-breed!" Vegeta called from the front. Gohan ignored the man for the moment as he studied his uncle. Raditz's expression looked happy, very happy, with Vegeta's interruption. "Half-breed Honey." Vegeta called again.

Gohan groaned softly. "We'll get back to this." He stated before he flew to Vegeta. There he gave the squad leader an impatient look. "What?"

"Stop harassing the others with stupid questions." Vegeta ordered.

"Stupid questions? I need to learn how to fly a ship. Everyone else here knows how to and I don't." Gohan complained.

"Exactly. Everyone else knows how to fly a ship so you don't have to know." Vegeta responded. The man eyed their surroundings. "It's a waste of your time."

"What if everyone in our ship gets struck by something and I am the only one who can still fly the ship, huh?"

Vegeta did look at him now. "If there is something or someone that manages to put four full-blooded saiyans in such a state that they are incapable of flying a ship, I would be surprised if it wouldn't affect you as well."

"But I…"

"No." Vegeta gave him a stern look. "You will stop these useless inquiries. If I want you to know something I'll tell the others to teach you. Until then, you're just going to have to be satisfied with your limited knowledge." The man raised his voice when Gohan opened his mouth to respond. "Do you understand me?"

Gohan huffed. "Yes." He muttered, frowning.

"Good. Now, I was planning on doing rock-paper-scissors to decide who is going to get the tedious job of watching the ship while we rob the second house, but if you keep annoying me, the choice will be a lot easier." Vegeta gave Gohan a pointed look and the half-saiyan nodded.

"Okay. Okay. Topic dropped." Gohan muttered as held up his hands.

The half-saiyan created a little distance since they didn't have to talk anymore but he continued to fly next to Vegeta. The young warrior finally made time to study the planet. It was definitely one of the more beautiful ones. The purger in Gohan was already calculating the price they could get for this planet.

"Beauty, isn't it?" Vegeta stated, glancing sideways.

Gohan showed a small smirk. "Am I that obvious?" He asked.

"You think like a soldier." Vegeta responded, shrugging. "I can practically see the zenni signs in your eyes, if you want to speak in human terms."

The half-saiyan eyed the planet. "We could have fetched a great price for this planet and we would have gotten it done in like two days. The inhabitants are weak."

"I would say the same about planet earth." Vegeta said casually.

Gohan shook his head. "No. Planet earth can be purged in one day." He responded, not taking the bait. "Easy."

Vegeta showed a smirk as he looked ahead. "I see a winner."

Gohan followed his line of sight and he could not help but grin. They found themselves a castle. There ought to be quite a lot of money in there. Vegeta put up his hand to stop the others. The saiyan prince looked at his comrades.

"Well, gentlemen." Vegeta started formally. "I'd say this is worthy goal. You know the drill. The plan is always simple but coherent and calm." The man returned the grins he was getting from his comrades. "Get in, grab everything you like and destroy the rest on your way out."

"Yes sir!" The others all cheered, pumping their fists in the air.

Vegeta turned to the castle. "Let's go!"

The five saiyans almost fell out of the air. They all raced towards the castle, crashing in through windows and glass doors to balconies. Gohan closed his eyes during his crash through the window. The half-saiyan looked around curiously. He seemed to have landed in some sort of children's room. The first object that caught his attention was a glass cabinet filled with expensive looking jewellery. Gohan took a step towards it but stopped when he realized he wasn't the only one in the room. Two young girls were sitting on the ground. They were dressed in finest dresses. Their bright green eyes were wide as they stared at the intruder, their hands still in the air holding their puppets. They appeared to be playing before he arrived.

Gohan sent the two girls a smile. "Run." He stated sweetly. The two girls shrieked and got up, running to the doorway. Gohan laughed to himself as he turned back to the jewellery cabinet. The half-saiyan placed a finger against the glass and pressed against it. The glass shattered under his strength. Gohan grabbed one of the bags that was lying around and loaded it with the jewellery. After this he quickly opened a few other cabinets but he could only find make-up and toys. Nothing interesting.

The young warrior looked up when explosions made the windows rattle. The half-saiyan rolled his eyes. Why could the others never be patient? They had all the time to destroy after taking everything. Gohan grabbed the bag and turned to the doorway. He showed a surprised expression when a somewhat older woman got in his way. Gohan gave one look at her expensive clothing and concluded that she was another daughter of the owner of this castle. However, this one was ready to fight… with a small glowing tube?

The woman pressed on a button in the middle of the tube and two glowing beams erupted from the middle area, which instantly turned white. Gohan made an impressed "o" with his mouth. "Oh, Katy would love to have that." He muttered to himself.

The half-saiyan grinned as he stepped closer to her and motioned for the woman to attack him. The royal princess showed a determined expression as she approached him. Gohan waited patiently for her to make the first move. She was well trained, he could see that, and she would probably easily defeat an average male human, but she was no match for Gohan.

The alien tightened her grip on the fighting-stick and attacked him head on. Her stick shot to him from above. Gohan stepped sideways at the last second. She recovered quickly and forced the stick to move sideways, trying to hit Gohan's on his legs. The young warrior jumped up high to avoid it. He landed with his feet on the stick, effectively pushing the point down to the ground.

The princess showed a surprised expression. Her mouth was open as she slowly lifted her gaze up to his face. The half-saiyan casually walked on the thin stick, using his energy to make sure no weight was on the stick itself, until he was hallway across it. He held her surprised expression and he tilted his head sideways, sending her a grin. The princess released the stick. She was probably hoping he would fall down as well because she gasped and stumbled back when Gohan stayed on the exact same spot, levitating in the air.

Gohan's attention was on the stick and he casually landed on the ground. He leaned down to grab the stick, pressing on the green button in the middle and watching in fascination as the two green beams pulled back into the middle area. Gohan put it in the bag. He looked up at the girl, who was staring at him with wide eyes. "Thank you!" He stated in the universal tongue before moving to the doorway. He did not look back and did not notice how she sank through her knees, still staring at the doorway.

The half-saiyan looked around when he heard the sounds of fighting somewhere in the castle. Great. The others got all the fun.

Gohan was about to enter another room when a group of soldiers came running around the corner. They gave one look at Gohan's not-green skin and they screamed something at him in their native language. Gohan turned to them fully and placed his hands on his hips. His tail lashed behind him playfully as he spit on the ground right in front of the feet of the nearest soldier. That message was clear.

The soldiers attacked with a scream. Gohan's eyes gleamed with amusement as he watched them run closer. He easily dodged the first attack, stepping sideways and putting his leg in the way, forcing the soldier to trip over his leg. The second soldier he punched right through the stomach, pushing his fist clean through the man's body. He pushed this soldier away and turned to the rest. They were shocked by Gohan's easy dealing with the first two soldiers.

Gohan noticed the fear in their eyes. He took a deep breath and screamed. "Booo!"

The soldiers gave yells of fear and ran away. Gohan laughed cheerfully before turning to the doorway again. He knew the soldiers would return. They would get their act together and try again. He was ready for them.

The half-saiyan ran into Vegeta on his way out of the next room. It turned out to be useless. Gohan gave a curious look to Vegeta's booty bag. "Having any luck?"

"Having a ton of luck." Vegeta looked around. "I'd say it's time to let this place rest. This will do for now." He responded. "Let's go."

Gohan nodded and the two headed for the nearest window. The half-saiyan whirled around and managed to snatch a knife out of the air. If Gohan hadn't noticed it, the knife would have landed right in the back of his head. It could have killed him. Vegeta frowned and looked over at the girl who threw the knife.

She shouted something in the native language of this planet, glaring at Gohan. Vegeta looked at the young warrior. "Do you know her?"

"She tried to fight me just now. I thought she would give up after she saw me flying." Gohan responded. The fact that she was now faced with two aliens didn't seem to impress her at all. "She's got a fire. I have to admit I like it."

"Well," Vegeta shrugged casually, "I said to go in and take everything you like, didn't I?"

Gohan laughed in response. "Yes, you did." He stepped closer to the young woman. She was now holding a broomstick, intending to use it as a weapon against the monstrosity in front of her. She tried to poke him in his stomach with the broom, but Gohan pushed the point away from his body with his tail. After that she used the other end to Gohan on the head.

She gasped when the broom hit Gohan's head and broke in two pieces. This didn't stop the young warrior from approaching her. She stepped back, her eyes searching for something to use as a weapon. Before she could do anything Gohan's tail appeared in front of her. She watched in awe as it snaked in front of her for a moment before curling around her waist. She let out a squeal when Gohan lifted her up in the air.

The half-saiyan ignored her native language pleads as he turned back to Vegeta. The half-saiyan held the young woman close to his back and he could feel how she tried to pry his tail from her waist.

"Let's go." Gohan said cheerfully. Vegeta laughed and nodded. The man motioned for Gohan to lead the way and Gohan jumped out the window. The girl screamed as they fell down. Gohan enjoyed her terror for a moment before flying upwards. Two arms wrapped around his torso. She was clinging onto him for dear life.

Vegeta made a howling sound and Nappa, Raditz and Turles appeared from several sides of the castle. They all gathered around and Vegeta looked at them. "Ready?"

They all nodded and they started flying again. Nappa was the first one to notice the rather lively bounty on Gohan's back. "Hey, if you were trying to get that dress you might have taken it off her rather than take the entire package."

Gohan grinned back at him. "She tried to kill me so I'll offer her a ride of a lifetime." The half-saiyan suddenly fell from the sky. The young woman on his back screamed as they fell down. Once they were close enough to touch the highest tower, Gohan flew up again.

The four saiyans were laughing when Gohan reached them again. The girl was shaking but Gohan was pleased to see she was holding back any tears. Turles studied the young woman. "What are you going to do with her?"

"I'll probably leave her behind near the ship." Gohan responded, shrugging. The half-saiyan blinked when she smacked the back of his head and yelled something in the native language. The half-saiyan gave an annoyed glance over his shoulder before he moved her away from his back. The half-saiyan's tail was still curled around her waist as he forced her to hang in the sky next to him.

The terror on her face as she tried to grab hold of him amused them all. He made sure to hold her far away enough so that it would be impossible for her to grab him. For her, she was hanging in the air by a weak little tail. She didn't know the tail was pretty much the strongest limb in Gohan's body.

"So, you're not going to do anything with her?" Turles asked hopefully.

"What were you planning on doing with her?"

"Oh, nothing much." Turles shrugged. "I would offer to save her life if she would give me, well, everything."

"She's like half your age."

"I thought you left your moral compass back on planet earth with the rest of your humanity." Turles stated, sending the half-saiyan a smirk.

Gohan grinned in return. "I am the gold-hearted Saiyan remember?"

Turles made a face. "Sadly."

As promised, Gohan released the unknown girl once they reached the ship. He turned away from her and followed the others into the ship. There, they played rock-paper-scissors to decide who was going to watch the ship while the others did a second run.

Nappa gave an annoyed groan when he realized he was going to have to stay behind. Gohan, who won the first game, was now approaching the young woman he kidnapped. She glared at him as he stepped closer.

She hadn't moved since he put her down approximately ten minutes ago. They flew halfway across the planet; she had nowhere to go, so she stayed where he left her. She looked up when she noticed Gohan. The young woman held the long stick she found herself in front of her as a weapon. Gohan smiled in return. Damn, he would have loved to spend some more time with this one. She reminded him of his girlfriend, back home.

She snarled something at him in her native language when he stopped in front of her. The half-saiyan snatched the stick out of her hands. He threw it aside and stepped closer. Gohan showed her his finger. He pointed it upwards and watched her reaction as a blue beam appeared around his finger. Little did she know, the glowing beam that was extending from his finger was razor sharp. He grabbed her shoulder in an iron grip and moved the beam closer to her neck.

At the last second, she realized what he was going to do. She screamed when he made a cut in her neck. The young woman looked him in the eyes and slowly shook her head. Her hands gripped his wrist desperately, trying to push his hand away from her neck. Gohan only smirked back at her as he slowly moved the knife sideways, cutting more of her skin and muscles. He kept staring into her desperate eyes as she started gasping for air. Blood poured all over his hands but he didn't care. She closed her eyes and her body went limp in his arms.

Gohan made the beam disappear and turned back to the ship. Vegeta raised an eyebrow once Gohan was close enough to talk to them. "Why do you get to have all the fun?" Vegeta asked annoyed.

"Hey, I carried her all the way here." Gohan responded as he looked at his hands. "I'm going to wash my hands. I'll be right back."

The second house they chose to rob was not a castle but the house of one of the leaders of another country. They got in by blasting all the guards and easily blowing the door of the safe. Once they were back at the ship, the four saiyans were surprised to see that Nappa was talking to the girl Gohan killed earlier.

"Wha-?"

"She fainted." Nappa said cheerfully. "I went to blast her remains and realized she was still breathing. You were careless. So I put her in the rejuvenation tank."

"Someone forgot how to kill properly." Turles said in a sing-song voice.

Gohan shrugged and started for the ship. "Do with her what you want." He called. "I don't care."

The others were not far behind him. Later, Gohan heard that Nappa just told the alien woman to get lost. They were feeling lenient today.

"A toast," Vegeta lifted his wine glass in the air, "on a well completed raid."

"Hear hear." Gohan said as they all toasted. There was a silence as they sipped from their beverages. Gohan licked his lips. Beer tasted so much better when it was stolen.

"So, where are we going now?" Gohan asked. He figured Vegeta would want to trade their booty in some sort of universal trading office.

"I'm not sure." Vegeta leaned back on his seat. He gently rocked his wine glass as he thought, the dark red wine gently swirling in the glass. "There are several trading offices where we can trade our booty for universal money no questions asked." The man seemed to want to say more but he didn't.

"What's the problem?" Turles asked.

"They're all a part of Frieza's company." Vegeta said, frowning thoughtfully.

Gohan blew out a sigh. Frieza was thwarting them without even realizing it. The young warrior shrugged. "Do you know any of them?" He asked. Vegeta had some 'friends' in Frieza's army. They were the kind of friends who would help the saiyan out without reporting it. Officially, all financial transactions had to be documented but Gohan had seen Vegeta trade booty with several traders, without writing down what they did.

"I don't know how many people know about our break with the company." Vegeta explained. "If one of them knows we are fugitives, they might ring up Frieza and try to collect a bounty, if there is one."

"A bounty?" Gohan repeated. "Do you think Frieza will give out a reward for finding us?"

"I fear he will." Vegeta muttered. "He might have already and you know how eager most soldiers are for extra cash."

Gohan lowered his gaze. What did they get themselves into? Frieza's tentacles could reach to every end of the entire universe. Maybe Frieza was already planning an all-out invasion on planet earth. What if there were many squads looking for them? How were they supposed to protect planet earth from all the way on the other side of the universe?

"Meh, what do we care?" Nappa responded, waving away any worries. "We can handle Frieza's entire army even if they all attack at once."

"Yeah, besides we might even be able to take Frieza on. We have a super saiyan among us, right!" Raditz gave Gohan a friendly punch against his shoulder.

The half-saiyan forced a smile. "Right." He stated, sounding more confident than he felt.

The following day, Turles was folding the laundry he just washed. Although Vegeta ordered Gohan around more than usual, the man could still find chores for the others to do. Then again, Vegeta was now busy cleaning the bathrooms so it wasn't like the man didn't do any chores himself.

The full-blooded warrior folded a black uniform and placed it on the pile. Most of their uniforms were pretty much destroyed. Gaps and tears were seen everywhere on the uniforms but as long as they covered enough skin, they could be used as training gear. They saved their complete uniforms for outings.

Turles glanced to the doorway when it opened. The man's face lit up when he saw his nephew. "Hey there kiddo. Came to help me out?" Turles folded another uniform before placing it on the pile. There was no response from his nephew so Turles looked over at the half-saiyan again.

Turles stood a little straighter when he noticed the behaviour of Gohan's tail. "You'd better put that tail away, kiddo. Wouldn't want anyone to get any wrong ideas."

Gohan showed a determined expression as his tail moved again, following the same pattern and positioning itself high between Gohan's shoulder blades.

The full-blooded warrior studied the half-saiyan for a moment before turning to the young warrior fully. The man's tail lashed behind him and followed a similar pattern to Gohan's tail.

Gohan's tail gave a brief push upwards. Turles laughed in response, shaking his head afterwards. "Get lost, kid." He said, waving the young warrior away.

Gohan repeated the movement, the tip of his tail pointing upwards to the ceiling. Turles's smile disappeared from his face. "Maybe I should call Vegeta and let him help me show you what happens to children who make too dominant tail gestures for their own good."

"Can't handle me on your own?" Gohan responded, smirking at the man.

Turles eyed Gohan's tail. "Half-breed…"

"I want you to stop calling me that." Gohan interrupted. "I challenge you for my name. If I win, you will call me by my real name."

"And if I win?" Turles asked.

Gohan shrugged. "Say what you want."

"What I want…" Turles showed a smirk as he stepped closer. "I could use a slave for a month."

"A week."

"Hey, I've got to change for the rest of my life." Turles responded, waving Gohan's counter-offer away.

"Two weeks. And I don't know how much time I'll have since Vegeta is still on his power trip. His orders come first." Gohan said determinedly.

"Fair enough." Turles gave the laundry a last glance before turning to the half-saiyan fully. "Let's do this." The man started walking to the training room. Gohan followed him eagerly. The two were still moving their tails in similar patterns as they made their way to the training room.

Vegeta came walking out a doorway. "What is going on here?" He snarled. "I can smell your dominancy from miles away and I don't appreciate it." The man eyed the situation. "Half-breed, have you learned nothing from challenging me?"

"Stay out of this, Vegeta." Gohan snarled.

"Oh, you did not just address me while in such a state." Vegeta chastised as his own tail lashed out and sent the half-saiyan a warning message. "Take it down a notch, brat."

Gohan stopped and turned to Vegeta. The young warrior's tail lowered briefly, the tip lowering all the way to the ground in a submissive status. "I'm sorry but I challenged Turles and he can't back out now." He turned back to Turles and lifted his tail up in the air again. "This is business."

"You're in so much trouble after this." Vegeta pointed at the half-saiyan but then waved them away. "Get it over with."

"Don't worry, Vegeta. It will be over in no-time." Turles said cheerfully as he led Gohan to the training room. "He's just a baby after all."

Once they were inside the room, Gohan powered up. He stayed in his regular form since this was a battle of authority, not strength. However, he was still more powerful than Turles. Vegeta followed them to the training room and assumed a position near the doorway.

It wasn't long before Raditz and Nappa came too watch as well. This wasn't a regular match. This was a fight for power. The others knew that at some point the half-saiyan would challenge them as well. Therefore, it wouldn't hurt for them to study the half-saiyan's tactics so they were prepared when Gohan decided to challenge them.

"You can still back out, kiddo." Turles stated, smirking at the half-saiyan. The man seemed to be having the time of his life.

"No way." Gohan shook his head. He was fully powered up and his long black hair was gently pulsing behind him. The half-saiyan was convinced he could win this time. When he fought Vegeta for authority, he was unprepared and his anger made it more difficult for him to concentrate. This time, he was focused and ready.

One moment the two were staring at each other and the next their fists connected in the air. A flash of electricity caused by their combined power made the three spectators show surprised expressions. Raditz whistled as he watched the fight move on.

Turles was on the offense, trying hard to land punches on the half-saiyan, but Gohan skilfully avoided each attack. The half-saiyan knew Turles was the kind of person to attack rather than wait for a fault in the others defence. Raditz fought in a similar manner, which meant that Raditz was the one to primarily train Turles.

Gohan, however, was taught the basics by the specialists of the camp he stayed at when he was younger. Those specialists taught him how to fight in a more defensive way. Gohan could basically fight on the offensive and defensive and he could adjust to how his opponent usually fought.

Turles pulled back a fist, trying to punch the half-saiyan. However, Gohan caught the punch and attempted to pull the man closer. Turles realized what the young warrior was planning to do and the older fighter pushed closer, taking Gohan by surprise.

Gohan widened his eyes but recovered quickly. He noticed Turles's other hand was clenched in a fist. So the man was planning on punching Gohan with his other hand once he was close enough. Gohan quickly let his body fall back and pushed his knees upwards. Turles tried to pull away to avoid Gohan's knees but he was too late.

Turles groaned in pain when Gohan's kneed him in his stomach. Gohan placed his hands on the ground behind him to catch his body. He saw his chance and used his legs to awkwardly swipe Turles's feet from under him. The half-saiyan could not put much strength in this attack because he wasn't steady on the ground. However, Turles was still recovering from Gohan's latest attack and he was not standing firmly on the ground either. The man was thrown off his feet easily and he landed flat on the ground.

Before Turles could react, Gohan appeared above him and aimed an energy-blast at the man. Gohan was breathing heavily as he studied Turles. The man slowly sat up and his tail reached out to Gohan's tail. Gohan showed a solemn expression as his tail reached out as well. The two tails curled around each other while Turles bowed his head, admitting his defeat. Gohan released the man. The blast in Gohan's hand disappeared and he extended his other hand to Turles to help the man up.

"Half-breed won." Nappa stated cheerfully. "He won his first official match!"

"I'm not entirely sure if that is something we should celebrate." Vegeta stated while he watched Gohan pull Turles up. "It will only be a matter of time until he tries to take control of the squad and actually succeeds."

"Congratulations, nephew!" Raditz said cheerfully once the two warriors were close enough to speak to them.

"You're growing up so fast." Nappa as he wiped away an imaginary tear. "It seems like yesterday that we picked you up from that ball of dirt you call a home."

Gohan grinned back at him. "Are you proud of me?"

"Very." Nappa clapped Gohan's shoulder before turning to the others. "I'd say we grab a beer and celebrate this monumental occasion."

"Hear hear!" Turles said cheerfully.

Gohan was somewhat surprised because of the positive behaviour of the others. He expected them to resist his attempts to gain more authority. On the contrary, they were encouraging him. It was strange but also nice. It made him feel empowered to try again next time. He already knew who he was going to challenge next. However, he would wait a couple of days. He was in no hurry.

Several days later, Raditz was doing push-ups in the gravity room. Fifty times Earth's normal gravity was a comfortable level for him. It made moving somewhat more difficult but it was manageable.

Five-hundred-one. Five-hundred-two. Five-hundred-three.

"Good morning, nephew." Raditz groaned out between push-ups when he felt a familiar power level.

"Morning." Gohan approached the man, studying Raditz's form in the push-up. The man's form was perfect, which meant the man just started. He was not exhausted into a terrible form just yet.

"Something the matter?"

"Yeah. Something is very much the matter." Gohan responded. Raditz noticed the hostility in Gohan's voice. The man stopped his push-ups and placed his knees on the ground so he could look up at his nephew.

"When were you planning on telling me that our trip is going to take a little longer than one month?"

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 **Next time on A Half-breed's Life 3:**

"How long is this trip going to be? The truth." Gohan responded as he stepped closer. Raditz seemed uncomfortable as he looked at Vegeta.

Vegeta held Gohan's gaze for a moment. "Six months." He answered.

 ****** DBZ ******

"Oh really? You know what, Vegeta? Screw you." Gohan snarled as he stepped closer. "Do whatever you want to punish me. Better yet; Surprise me. You never failed to do that." The young warrior turned away from them and headed for the doorway.

 ****** DBZ ******

"Half-breed, did you do what I say?"

"Yup." Gohan stepped closer and looked down at his own appearance. He wore only spandex shorts that almost reached his knees and he put an armour over his naked chest. "I dressed… light?"

A smirk appeared on Vegeta's face as he studied the half-saiyan. "This will do just fine." He stated before turning to the doorway.

 ****** DBZ ******

Gohan did not pay any attention to the female slaves at first but once they came back with the drinks, Gohan's eyes fell on the youngest of the two. She kept her pink eyes lowered to the ground as she offered the serving plate. Gohan grabbed the glass of wine but he nearly dropped it when he realized who she looked like. Her short pink hair bobbed cheerfully when she bowed to him and joined the other slaves in the corner of the room where they waited for any new orders.

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"Vegeta." Turles, Raditz and Nappa were waiting for the two warriors and they looked anxious. Turles stepped closer. "We have to leave. Now."

 **Until next time!**


	3. Chapter 3: Spider Web of Secrets

**Hey there! \\(^.^)/**

 **Last time on A Half-breed's Life 3:**

 _Vegeta placed his glass back on the table. "We only have a month, remember. If we want to get anywhere we have to hurry it up."_

" _But… Shouldn't we be turning back?" Gohan placed his lower arms on the table so he could lean on them. "Or at least slow down or turn so that we'll be travelling back in a circle. Now we're just flying away from planet earth."_

" _Why don't you leave the flying to the ones who can actually steer the ship?" Vegeta suggested, raising an eyebrow at the young warrior. "Or do you not trust me?"_

" _I'd put my life in your hands any day." Gohan responded, tilting his head sideways as he met Vegeta's gaze steadily. "However, after all this time I learned to catch the signals when you're trying to keep something from me. I've had a lot of practice."_

" _I hope this won't go into the you're-an-experienced-adult-now thing again." Vegeta leaned back on his seat. "I think we covered that enough lately, haven't we?"_

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" _We know what's best, half-breed!" Nappa clapped him on the back cheerfully._

 _Gohan made a face. "Could you stop calling me that?"_

" _Oh come on, you've never had any problems with the nickname."_

" _Yes I did." Gohan complained. "I hate it. Why can't you call me by my real name?"_

" _If it really bothers you that much then why don't you fight for it?" Nappa suggested._

" _Fight for it?" Gohan grabbed the cloth again and squeezed the water out of it. He figured he might as well continue his work while they conversed._

" _Yeah. Challenge one of us. If you win, they have to call you by your real name. If they win, you have to do something for them. It's common for young saiyans to challenge their elders for something they want."_

 _Gohan raised both his eyebrows. "I didn't know I could do that."_

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 ****** DBZ ******

 _The full-blooded warrior studied the half-saiyan for a moment before turning to the young warrior fully. The man's tail lashed behind him and followed a similar pattern to Gohan's tail._

 _Gohan's tail gave a brief push upwards. Turles laughed in response, shaking his head afterwards. "Get lost, kid." He said, waving the young warrior away._

 _Gohan repeated the movement, the tip of his tail pointing upwards to the ceiling. Turles's smile disappeared from his face. "Maybe I should call Vegeta and let him help me show you what happens to children who make too dominant tail gestures for their own good."_

" _Can't handle me on your own?" Gohan responded, smirking at the man._

 _Turles eyed Gohan's tail. "Half-breed…"_

" _I want you to stop calling me that." Gohan interrupted. "I challenge you for my name. If I win, you will call me by my real name."_

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 _The young warrior crossed his arms over each other to stop his hands from shaking. "You can fly the ship, right?" He asked, looking to Turles. His uncle nodded slowly. "Can you teach me?"_

 _Turles did not return his glance. "Later. We have to go." He stated. "We have a planet to rob." The man smacked on Gohan's shoulder before walked over to the others._

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" _You know how to fly a ship, right?" Gohan asked, smiling innocently._

" _I have some basic knowledge." Raditz looked rather uncomfortable, which made Gohan wonder why._

" _Can you teach me?"_

" _Maybe when we get back to the ship." Raditz responded vaguely. "We should focus on the mission for now."_

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" _Stop harassing the others with stupid questions." Vegeta ordered._

" _Stupid questions? I need to learn how to fly a ship. Everyone else here knows how to and I don't." Gohan complained._

" _Exactly. Everyone else knows how to fly a ship so you don't have to know." Vegeta responded. The man eyed their surroundings. "It's a waste of your time."_

 **Chapter 3. Spider Web of Secrets**

After yet another long training session, Gohan crawled on his bed. He leaned against his pillow and reached in the bedside cabinet. The young warrior grabbed his notebook and opened it. He made himself comfortable and stared at the blank page for a second before writing down the date. He continued to write down his thoughts at that particular moment. He was not entirely sure if his comrades knew he still kept a diary. It wasn't necessarily a diary in which he told what happened every day. He tended to write down his opinion and thoughts about certain events, like how he failed to kill that girl when they visited a planet several days ago. It was therapeutic. His diary always listened to him and never mocked him or called his opinion unimportant.

Several days ago… Gohan frowned and looked at the date in his notebook. He flipped the pages to the day that they visited the planet. Wait a second. Gohan continued to flip back the days. Days and days of him talking about traveling space, sparring with his comrades, wondering how things were on planet earth until… The day that they left. Sixty days ago…

Gohan leaned back against the wall and frowned thoughtfully. Sixty days? They'd been travelling for sixty days already? They were supposed to be gone for one month. And they were still going high speed forwards, away from planet earth. Gohan closed his diary and placed it back on the bedside table. He pushed off from the bed and sensed around the ship. Who was where?

Raditz. That would be an easy target. He headed for the training room. There Raditz was doing push-ups. He just started, it was easy to see. Gohan stepped closer to his uncle.

"Good morning, nephew." Raditz greeted between push-ups.

"Morning." Not for the first time Gohan realized that he never really called Raditz 'Uncle'. The man made it clear that he wouldn't mind if Gohan addressed him with the more familiar pronoun but Gohan never felt like it. They seemed more like friends than uncle and nephew.

"Something the matter?"

Gohan could feel anger rise up in his stomach. It all made sense now. His comrades avoided the conversation concerning the length of their trip. Their refusal to teach him how to steer the ship. Vegeta's tendency to taunt the half-saiyan into a fight whenever Gohan started to ask questions.

"Yes." Gohan's tail lashed out angrily behind him. He noticed that Raditz became aware of the half-saiyan's hostility. "Something is very much the matter. When were you planning on telling me that our trip is going to take a lot longer than one month?"

Raditz slowly sat down. "What are you talking about?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I've been writing down something about every single day since we left and I've written a total of sixty daily entries since we left."

"You still keep your diary?" Raditz asked as a frown appeared on his face.

Gohan put up his hand. "Don't change the subject." He said, shaking his head. "What is going on, Raditz?"

"Nothing." Raditz got up from the ground. "You're being paranoid. We're already on our way home. We might have gotten off course a bit. We visited that one planet. There's just not much time in one month."

"You're going to stick with that story?" Gohan asked, raising an eyebrow. Raditz did not respond so Gohan turned around and walked to the doorway. "I'll just go straight to the source." He muttered.

"Half-breed, stop." Raditz followed him and tried to place a hand on the boy's shoulder to stop him but Gohan shrugged him off. "Wait. Let me explain."

Gohan clenched his fists as he stalked to the control room of the ship. "Vegeta!" He called once he was inside. The older warrior turned away from the control panel and to the half-saiyan. "Tell me. How long have we been on this trip?"

Vegeta thought about this for a moment. "A little more than a month." He said, shrugging. "We're running behind schedule a bit. No problem."

"No problem." Gohan scoffed, shaking his head. "I write daily entries to keep track of my training progress and according to my notebook we have been travelling for sixty days!"

Vegeta's expression softened somewhat. "You still keep your diary?" He asked, tilting his head sideways.

Gohan growled in annoyance. "Not the point right now."

"What do you want, half-breed?" Vegeta crossed his arms over each other. "What do you expect from me?"

"How long is this trip going to be? The truth." Gohan responded as he stepped closer. Raditz seemed uncomfortable as he looked at Vegeta.

Vegeta held Gohan's gaze for a moment. "Six months." He answered.

"Six months?" Gohan snarled. "What? How could you? Why? Did you…" The half-saiyan was at a loss for words.

"We sent your mate a note. Your family knows the real duration of our trip." Vegeta added.

Gohan clenched his fists and his powerlevel rose slowly. "Did you think I wasn't going to find out that we are travelling for six months? How stupid do you think I am?"

"We knew you would find out at some point." Vegeta responded calmly.

"You lied to me!" Gohan yelled at him. "You looked me in the eye and lied to me!"

"We did what we had to do." Vegeta stated, raising his voice. "One month of training is not enough. We needed more time."

"Why didn't you tell me that then?" Gohan snarled at him. He realized that the rest of their comrades were in the room as well, possibly drawn by Gohan's rising powerlevel.

"As if you would travel with us for six months? Leave planet earth for six months?" Vegeta asked, raising an eyebrow. "You would have just been jumping up and down to join your dearest comrades and not see your mate for six months, right?"

Gohan did not respond and Vegeta nodded once. "Exactly. We did what we had to do." The Saiyan prince stated.

The half-saiyan looked at his comrades. "So you lied to me." He stated. "All of you. For weeks." He slowly shook his head and turned to the doorway. He needed to get out of here. The young warrior headed for the doorway.

"Half-breed…" Turles tried to stop the young warrior but Gohan whirled around and punched Turles square across the face. The man stumbled back, placing a hand on his burning cheek.

"It's Gohan to you!" The half-saiyan snarled before turning away from them and leaving the room.

"Well…" Turles opened and closed his mouth to make sure his jaw was still working properly. "That went well."

That evening it was Gohan's turn to prepare supper. They all expected the young warrior to skip dinner entirely so they were all equally surprised when delicious wafts of a supper that was being prepared made their presence known in the ship.

Following his nose, Raditz smiled when he noticed the half-saiyan was preparing supper in the kitchen. The young warrior ignored his presence until his uncle was standing right next to him, staying away far enough not to get in the way but close enough to make it impossible for the half-saiyan to ignore him any further.

"Hey there, kiddo." Raditz greeted carefully.

"Hi."

"Can I help you with something?" Raditz offered, his eyes glancing over everything that was going on in front of them.

"Nope. I can handle everything just fine on my own." Gohan responded calmly. "Thank you for offering." His response sounded normal but Raditz noticed the cold edge to the boy's voice.

"Half-breed, if you want to talk…"

"Raditz." Gohan looked up at his uncle. The boy may have grown to his full potential but Raditz was still somewhat taller, although not much anymore. "I'm trying to get something done here and I can't finish it in time if you keep disturbing me."

Raditz nodded and stepped away from the counter. "Okay." He walked over to the table and sat down there. The man placed a hand on his forehead, closing his eyes. The rest of the squad arrived over time while Gohan prepared their food. The half-saiyan was silent as he served their dinner. Sitting down, the young warrior waited for everyone to grab their own serving before loading his own first plate.

Usually, they did not talk during dinner but instead chose to fill their stomachs at first. Priorities. It was pretty much around their eighth plate that one of them started a conversation since it was near the end of their dinner.

For the first time since he started eating, Vegeta looked up to the others and he noticed while everyone else was still eating Gohan was playing with his food more than actually eating it. Vegeta watched while Gohan pushed a bit of stew around for a bit before taking it on his fork and putting it in his mouth. While chewing, the half-saiyan started a similar ritual with another bit of stew.

"Half-breed," Vegeta pricked his own stew with his fork, "you didn't overcook the meat this time. Congrats to you."

"Thanks."

Vegeta was not thrown aside that easily. "Did you do something different this time?"

"Nope."

"Not hungry?" Vegeta asked as he watched Gohan push the food around again.

The half-saiyan now finally glanced at him and demonstratively took a huge amount of stew on his fork and pushed it all in his own mouth. Vegeta shrugged, turning to his own food and getting up to fill up his plate again. Gohan placed his fork down while he chewed the mouthful of food.

Raditz and Nappa started a conversation about their most recent training session. Vegeta and Turles mingled in here and there, throwing in their opinion about Raditz's and Nappa's fighting style. The only person who did not actively participate was Gohan, who silently continued eating his dinner.

"What do you think kiddo?" Nappa suddenly turned to the half-saiyan. "The manoeuvre. Is it a yes or a no?"

The half-saiyan shrugged. "I haven't seen it."

"Right. I'll show it to you tonight." Nappa suggested.

"Okay."

Nappa looked at his comrades and they all shrugged helplessly. Their conversation continued for a while until it died and a silence fell. Turles decided to try to get the half-saiyan to talk and he turned to the young warrior.

"Whelp, three days of chores for your thoughts." Turles offered.

Gohan had already given up on eating and had been staring at his plate. He did not really want to be here but he had nowhere else to go so he just sat there. The half-saiyan now looked up to his uncle. "I should have included all the annoying nicknames you guys created for me in our bet and not just the one that you use to denigrate me."

Turles made a face. "Well, at least you're honest." He muttered.

Vegeta growled. "Half-breed, sulking is not going to work on us. Stop being such a woman about this."

Gohan pushed back his chair and got up, grabbing his plate and turning to the open kitchen. Vegeta frowned. "Where are you going?" He snarled. "You haven't finished your food."

"I lost my appetite." Gohan placed his plate on the counter.

"Half-breed. Stay." Vegeta ordered. Gohan turned to the man and sent him a defying glance. "Stay or deal with the consequences."

"Oh really? You know what, Vegeta? Screw you." Gohan snarled as he stepped closer. "Do whatever you want to punish me. Better yet; Surprise me. You never failed to do that." The young warrior turned away from them and headed for the doorway.

"Half-breed! Why I ought to…" Vegeta blew out a sigh when he realized that Gohan was not going to listen to him. The man angrily grabbed his own plates and dumped them in the sink. The others watched as the smaller warrior walked out the room as well before they gave each other somewhat hopeless looks.

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

A few hours later, Gohan was stretched out on his bed. He wondered why he felt betrayed. His comrades lied to him more often. They forced him into things he did not want to do all the time. And it was not the first time that they disappointed him.

Gohan stared up at the ceiling. He hated emotions. Honestly, he would love to be more like his comrades. They seemed not to be affected by emotions like feelings of betrayal or disappointment at all.

"Knock knock."

Gohan glanced at the doorway before looking up at the ceiling again. He was not in the mood for company right now. The half-saiyan hoped Raditz would leave instead of trying to force the door open.

"Open up, kiddo."

"Go away."

"Open the door or I'll kick in the door. Good luck trying to put it back again."

Gohan let out a sigh before he got up from the bed. After opening the door Gohan moved back to his bed and fell down on it. He briefly considered trying to keep Raditz out the room but he knew that wouldn't work anyway.

Raditz could not help but smile at Gohan's childish behaviour. The half-saiyan might be an experienced warrior who had seen more horrors than the average grown human but he was still young and sometimes his age showed.

The man sat down on the bed near the foot end. Gohan shifted his legs to give his uncle more room but did not say anything or even look in the man's direction. "We wouldn't have done what we did if we thought you would come with us willingly."

"I came with you willingly thinking that I would only be gone for a month." Gohan responded as he stared up at the ceiling.

"And did we really make drastic improvements?" Raditz asked, frowning. Gohan glanced at him now. "No, we didn't. Nobody here has ascended aside from you. We're not getting anywhere. We need more time."

Gohan looked up at the ceiling again. "You didn't have to lie to me."

"I'm sorry." Raditz stated, catching Gohan off guard. The half-saiyan frowned as he looked at his uncle again. "I am. Really we didn't want to lie to you. We hated coming to the conclusion that we had to tell you lies about the trip."

"But you did."

"Yes. We did."

"That's all I need to know for now." Gohan stated as he looked up at the ceiling again. "Please leave me alone."

Raditz opened his mouth to say something but changed his mind and got up from the bed. Gohan was silent while he waited for Raditz to leave the room. Once his uncle was gone, the half-saiyan got up from the bed and walked over to the circular window. The young warrior leaned on the windowsill and let out a sigh. If his comrades continued to do things like this, how was he supposed to trust them?

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"Alright." Vegeta looked at his comrades **.** Raditz, Nappa, Gohan and Turles all looked eager to leave the ship. They were going to sell their booty and buy food and other resources so they could get through the upcoming few months. "Half-breed, did you do what I say?"

"Yup." Gohan stepped closer and looked down at his own appearance. He wore only spandex shorts that almost reached his knees and he put an armour over his naked chest. "I dressed… light?"

A smirk appeared on Vegeta's face as he studied the half-saiyan. "This will do just fine." He stated before turning to the doorway.

"So, you're not going to explain why I'm dressed like a male prostitute?" Gohan asked, raising an eyebrow. "Or will you just say nothing and let me find out everything on my own like you usually do?"

"Keeps you on your toes!" Turles clapped the half-saiyan on his shoulder.

"Awesome." Gohan muttered sarcastically.

Vegeta decided to steer the conversation back to their upcoming operation. "Let's stay together for now. We'll go to the largest city and make the rest of the journey by foot. That way we won't stand out too much. My acquaintance is expecting us."

The others nodded. Vegeta led them out the ship and, after locking the ship properly, they flew up and to the city. Vegeta glanced over his shoulder, his eyes lingering on the half-saiyan for a moment. It had been several days since Gohan found out that they deceived him. The half-saiyan behaved normal most of the time but they all knew he was only putting up an act. His smiles didn't always reach his eyes and there was a cold edge to his tone of voice.

The others were worried but Vegeta knew Gohan just needed some time to settle down and get over it. The half-saiyan always found it difficult to get over things but he did eventually. It would just take him a while.

The group found themselves standing in front of a tall building. Gohan put his hand above his eyes to shield them from this galaxy's sun as he looked up. Vegeta turned to his comrades. "It will just be me and half-breed." He extended his hands to Nappa and Raditz, who were holding the bags filled with booty. "Less intimidating that way. Besides, you can keep an eye out here."

Once Vegeta was inside, Raditz turned to his comrades. "Wanna take a walk?" He suggested. "Vegeta can find us by our powerlevels."

"I'm going to stay here and wait for Vegeta." Nappa said loyally. "Besides, I could use a little sunbathing." The man went for a conveniently placed bench and sat down, leaning back and closing his eyes to protect them from the sun.

"I'll go with you." Turles offered. Raditz nodded in response and the two brothers turned to the nearest busy street. There aliens of all different kinds were walking around.

This planet was a free planet. It was not part of any planet trade organization but they did have ties with several organizations. Raditz remembered reading that this planet reached out to the planet trade organizations and bargained with them. The large organizations would not purge this planet and in exchange the planet was open for any alien who wanted to visit. It became a perfect place for intergalactic tourism.

Raditz and Turles gave curious glances to the different stalls. They were drawn to the food stalls but Raditz also gave a curious glance to the many stalls that sold jewels from many different planets. Turles directed his older brother to a stall that sold food they both loved to eat when they were still in the army. The meat sizzled on the hot plates and the two saiyans found their mouths watering as they studied the food.

"We'll go by here once we have money." Turles stated. Raditz nodded in response.

They lingered near a group of children who were performing a dance to entertain the crowd. Raditz leaned sideways so he could talk to Turles without having to shout. "They're good." He stated. The music was so loud that it was difficult to hear each other.

"Very." Turles was already bored and headed for another food stall. Raditz followed him, giving a brief glance at a large screen that was projecting pictures. The saiyan froze and turned to the screen fully.

He found himself staring right at his own face. Raditz's mouth fell open as he looked at the rest of the screen. There were the rest of his comrades. Vegeta, Gohan, Turles and Nappa all gave solemn stares at the audience. Raditz's eyes fell on the large amount of credits that accompanied every picture. They were on wanted posters.

"Turles." Raditz called while keeping his eyes on the screen. "You're going to want to see this."

"What?" Turles stepped closer and looked up at the screen. The man's mouth fell open as well. "Oh…"

"We're screwed." Raditz stated as he looked up at the screen.

The two saiyans were fixated on the screen and therefore did not notice the person next to them. The bulky man looked from the screen to the two saiyans and a smirk appeared on his face.

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

Vegeta glanced around the room as a slave boy led them inside. The man chuckled to himself. He expected his friend to make sure to live in luxury but he did not expect him to take it this far. The man's office was bigger than their entire training room and this was only his office. Vegeta didn't even want to see the man's real house.

"Vegeta, my dearest friend." A tall man in a dark suit walked over to the saiyan prince. "You soldiers always look like you spend all your time in the training room." The man openly hated any sort of exercising but he also openly appreciated everyone who actually did exercises, especially men.

"Geldirus, it's been a long time." Vegeta stated as he shook hands with the man. "Have you met my youngest comrade?" He motioned to Gohan.

"Oh…" Geldirus widened his eyes when he caught sight of the half-saiyan. "Yes, I have heard stories about the little hybrid saiyan but I've never seen you in reality before. My my." The man's eyes ran over the young warrior's appearance and suddenly Gohan realized why Vegeta wanted the young warrior to dress to impress. Geldirus loved seeing a man's body trained body. "Youth." Geldirus drawled as he circled the half-saiyan. "Such a short-lived present."

"It's nice to meet you." Gohan said, nodding to the man.

"Very nice to meet you too…?" The man stopped and gave Gohan a questioning glance and Gohan realized the man was trying to figure out Gohan's name.

"Gohan." The half-saiyan stated, smiling.

"Gohan." The man repeated as he held Gohan's gaze. "I'll remember you." Geldirus turned away from the half-saiyan and headed for his shiny golden desk. The instant Geldirus wasn't looking Gohan sent Vegeta an annoyed glance. It wasn't the first time Vegeta used Gohan's youthful appearance to cosy up to a powerful person.

The young warrior opened his mental communication bond with Vegeta and mentally snarled something at his comrade. _"This is the last time you're taking advantage of me like that."_ They originally created the mental bond as a mind exercise and afterwards they trained themselves to be able to close and open the mental bonds between their minds at will.

Vegeta caught Gohan's eye. _"Hey, this advantage will be gone once you hit the thirty. Better use it while you still can."_

Gohan rolled his eyes but he did not respond and instead chose to focus on what Geldirus was saying. The man was sitting behind his desk by now and was typing away on his computer. "I assume you want to trade some valuables?"

Vegeta nodded as Gohan and he carried the two bags with booty closer to the desk. "We want to sell these goods for a proper amount of credits. Whatever you think is fair." The man sent Geldirus a disarming smile. Geldirus was a typical tradesman and he would always try to make a profitable deal. Vegeta was not interested in making a good deal. He just wanted enough credits to buy enough rations for them to live on for the next couple of months.

Geldirus raised a dark-skinned hand and snapped his fingers and almost immediately five skinny looking slaves walked in to take the bags from Gohan and Vegeta. The slaves dressed in brown rags were from all different kinds of races. Their appearances were different but every person looked absolutely exhausted and starved. It was such a contrast when compared to their chubby master. Geldirus hated exercise and it was easy to see by his double chin and bulging stomach. The man's white hair was a sharp contrast against his raven skin.

The slaves started to empty the bags and arrange the goods according to value. Geldirus pressed on a silver button on his desk and the door to the right opened revealing two beautiful female slaves. "Do you appreciate wine or a beer?" Geldirus asked, looking up at the two warriors.

"Wine." Vegeta said, nodding.

"Wine would be fine." Gohan agreed. Their comrades tended to choose for beer while Vegeta would always stick to wine. Gohan did not have a preference. He would drink both just fine. Gohan did not pay any attention to the female slaves at first but once they came back with the drinks, Gohan's eyes fell on the younger of the two. She kept her pink eyes lowered to the ground as she offered the serving plate. Gohan grabbed the glass of wine but he nearly dropped it when he realized who she looked like. Her short pink hair bobbed cheerfully when she bowed to him and joined the other slaves in the corner of the room where they waited for any new orders.

Vegeta gave Gohan a warning glance. _"Don't even think about it."_ He snarled through their mental bond when he caught Gohan's expression.

" _But she's from Katy's planet."_

" _She's not your girlfriend so she's not yours to save."_ Vegeta sounded stern and he held Gohan's gaze until the half-saiyan nodded slowly.

Gohan silently studied the two female slaves. Why was a girl from Katy's planet here? Last time they visited her planet, it was still free from the Planet Trade Organization so why were there slaves from planet Biona here? It would mean that the planet was purged or at least added to the company.

One of the slaves walked over to Geldirus and handed him a piece of paper. Geldirus nodded before looking up at Vegeta. "20 000." He offered.

"For one bag?" Vegeta responded, slowly rotating his whine glass so that the red liquid gently swirled in the glass.

"Vegeta, honestly, do you want me to go bankrupt?" Geldirus exclaimed, raising an eyebrow. "I don't even know if I can sell this stuff."

"You've been keeping your company afloat for many years, Gel, I'm sure you'll figure something out." Vegeta said sweetly. Gohan silently sipped from his drink. He always stayed out of these conversations. There was nothing he could add anyway. "20 000 for one, 30 for both."

"25 000 for the two bags." Geldirus suggested as he leaned forwards.

"30 000 for two bags." Vegeta stated, shaking his head. "I'm not going any lower."

Gohan's gaze wandered off to the two female slaves. The young warrior was somewhat surprised when they met his gaze. The slave from planet Biona sent him a sweet glance and winked at him. The other one giggled when the Bional female whispered something in her ear.

"I'll give you 100 000 for the kid." Geldirus's voice made Gohan look back to what was happening in front of him.

Vegeta seemed surprised by this offer as well. The full-blooded saiyan was silent for a moment and Gohan angrily turned towards him. "You're taking way too long to respond!" He exclaimed.

The saiyan prince showed an amused expression as he glanced in Gohan's direction. "That's a lot of credits." He said innocently. Ignoring the heavy glare he was receiving from the half-saiyan, Vegeta turned to Geldirus again. "I'm here to sell the bags only."

"500 000." Geldirus tried again. Gohan raised an eyebrow, wondering if he was really worth all that cash. Then again, he was a very strong warrior and would probably make an excellent bodyguard. Nobody would be able to hurt Geldirus if Gohan was protecting him. However, looking at the gazes Geldirus was sending in his direction Gohan realized that the man would not necessarily hire him for bodyguard duty.

"The bags, Gel." Vegeta responded, tilting his head sideways. "I'm here for the bags."

"Pity." Geldirus muttered before getting up from his chair. "30 000 for the two bags, because I like your comrade so much." He mentioned to Vegeta. The saiyan prince stepped forwards and held out his hand.

"Deal."

The two shook hands before breaking apart and Vegeta sent the half-saiyan a smug glance. Gohan's presence seemed to have worked exactly how Vegeta wanted it to. Gohan managed not to shake his head in disapproval and assumed a solemn expression. No reason to show Geldirus what he really thought.

A few minutes later the two saiyans left the building with a small palm-sized computer that contained all their money. Apparently, the computers were the new way of paying. Gohan studied the small contraption. "So, this machine knows exactly how much money we have…" He said slowly. "And when we want to pay for something we type in the number and the seller types in the same number and we press the pay thingies together so these red areas on the top of the machines touch each other," Gohan ran his finger along the shiny red surface, "and the payment will be finalized."

"The company moved on without us." Vegeta muttered as he held out his hand. Gohan gave him the machine and Vegeta put it away in his armour. "Modern payment. I bet I won't be able to access my old credits accounts…"

Gohan shrugged. "We didn't have much anyway."

"It would have been something." Vegeta grumbled. The two warriors had to narrow their eyes when they stepped into the sunlight.

"Vegeta." Turles, Raditz and Nappa were waiting for the two warriors and they looked anxious. Turles stepped closer. "We have to leave. Now."

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

The air in café Tiokido was heavy with a thick sent of alcohol. Many warriors of different ages and sizes were talking, screaming and laughing as they downed numerous gallons of alcohol. A tall man with a long black beard was proclaiming his superiority over his comrades, who all ignored him like they were used to it. A young waiter placed a serving plate with a dozen of cups of alcohol on a table and the warriors at the table hastened to get their drink before the cups were gone.

Two men walked slowly from the entrance to one of the tables. The warriors there were the only people who did not appear to be drunk or even tipsy. They were discussing something in hushed voices, as if they were afraid someone would hear them in this crowded place.

The two sat down at the table and one of them moved up his hand to show that he wanted the others to listen to him. They all fell silent and gave him curious glances. The man reached in his pocket and pulled out a small white machine. He pressed on one of the many black buttons and a small projection appeared above the machine. The man placed the machine on the table so the others could see the picture of the four saiyans and the numbers above their pictures.

One of the men looked up at the newcomers, his blue eyes were somewhat hesitant. "These men are supposed to be very strong. Do you want to catch them?"

The man nodded as a smirk appeared on his face. "We'll take the entire group. Twenty against four. They won't stand a chance." The man's brown eyes studied his comrades while his reached out with his beige hand and turned off the projection.

"Twenty? That won't leave much of the reward." Another man stated, frowning. This man was definitely the youngest of the group since he had no scars or even fine lines on his beige face like the others.

"The reward is massive. Besides, those saiyans are arrogant. I've encountered that annoying Turles while I was still serving at war. Fucking show-off. We need to teach them a lesson and we might as well get a reward in the process." The man stated, nodding. "Are you guys in?"

The warriors all seemed eager to go on a bounty hunt so the leader showed a smirk. "Good. Those saiyans won't know what hit them."

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

 **I hope you liked it. Please review and let me know what you think!**

 **Until next time!**


	4. Chapter 4: Hunters or Prey?

**Hey guys!**

 **Back with a new chapter!**

 **Last time on A Half-breed's Life 3:**

" _We know what's best, half-breed!" Nappa clapped him on the back cheerfully._

 _Gohan made a face. "Could you stop calling me that?"_

" _Oh come on, you've never had any problems with the nickname."_

" _Yes I did." Gohan complained. "I hate it. Why can't you call me by my real name?"_

" _If it really bothers you that much then why don't you fight for it?" Nappa suggested._

" _Fight for it?" Gohan grabbed the cloth again and squeezed the water out of it. He figured he might as well continue his work while they conversed._

" _Yeah. Challenge one of us. If you win, they have to call you by your real name. If they win, you have to do something for them. It's common for young saiyans to challenge their elders for something they want."_

 _Gohan raised both his eyebrows. "I didn't know I could do that."_

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

 _The full-blooded warrior studied the half-saiyan for a moment before turning to the young warrior fully. The man's tail lashed behind him and followed a similar pattern to Gohan's tail._

 _Gohan's tail gave a brief push upwards. Turles laughed in response, shaking his head afterwards. "Get lost, kid." He said, waving the young warrior away._

 _Gohan repeated the movement, the tip of his tail pointing upwards to the ceiling. Turles's smile disappeared from his face. "Maybe I should call Vegeta and let him help me show you what happens to children who make too dominant tail gestures for their own good."_

" _Can't handle me on your own?" Gohan responded, smirking at the man._

 _Turles eyed Gohan's tail. "Half-breed…"_

" _I want you to stop calling me that." Gohan interrupted. "I challenge you for my name. If I win, you will call me by my real name."_

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" _How long is this trip going to be? The truth." Gohan responded as he stepped closer. Raditz seemed uncomfortable as he looked at Vegeta._

 _Vegeta held Gohan's gaze for a moment. "Six months." He answered._

" _Six months?" Gohan snarled. "What? How could you? Why? Did you…" The half-saiyan was at a loss for words._

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

 _One of the slaves walked over to Geldirus and handed him a piece of paper. Geldirus nodded before looking up at Vegeta. "20 000." He offered._

" _For one bag?" Vegeta responded, slowly rotating his whine glass so that the red liquid gently swirled in the glass._

" _Vegeta, honestly, do you want me to go bankrupt?" Geldirus exclaimed, raising an eyebrow. "I don't even know if I can sell this stuff."_

" _You've been keeping your company afloat for many years, Gel, I'm sure you'll figure something out." Vegeta said sweetly. Gohan silently sipped from his drink. He always stayed out of these conversations. There was nothing he could add anyway. "20 000 for one, 30 for both."_

" _25 000 for the two bags." Geldirus suggested as he leaned forwards._

" _30 000 for two bags." Vegeta stated, shaking his head. "I'm not going any lower."_

" _I'll give you 100 000 for the kid." Geldirus's voice made Gohan look back to what was happening in front of him._

 _Vegeta seemed surprised by this offer as well. The full-blooded saiyan was silent for a moment and Gohan angrily turned towards him. "You're taking way too long to respond!" He exclaimed._

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

 _One of the men looked up at the newcomers, his blue eyes were somewhat hesitant. "These men are supposed to be very strong. Do you want to catch them?"_

 _The man nodded as a smirk appeared on his face. "We'll take the entire group. Twenty against four. They won't stand a chance." The man's brown eyes studied his comrades while his reached out with his beige hand and turned off the projection._

" _Twenty? That won't leave much of the reward." Another man stated, frowning. This man was definitely the youngest of the group since he had no scars or even fine lines on his beige face like the others._

" _The reward is massive. Besides, those saiyans are arrogant. I've encountered that annoying Turles while I was still serving at war. Fucking show-off. We need to teach them a lesson and we might as well get a reward in the process." The man stated, nodding. "Are you guys in?"_

 _The warriors all seemed eager to go on a bounty hunt so the leader showed a smirk. "Good. Those saiyans won't know what hit them."_

 **Thanks for the reviews!**

 **Chapter 4. Hunters or Prey?**

"35 000 credits in the pocket." Nappa said cheerfully as he looked at the number on the machine.

The saiyans were gathered in the control room of the ship. After Turles and Raditz found out there was a bounty for catching the entire saiyan squad, they decided not to stay on one planet too long. They met up with Nappa, Vegeta and Gohan and immediately left the planet. Now in full speed ahead, Nappa was eager to know how much they actually earned today.

"We're rich again." Nappa stated as he handed the machine back to Vegeta.

"He offered 100 000 for the brat." Vegeta said, sending Gohan a smirk. The half-saiyan rolled his eyes as he turned to the control panel. The young warrior studied the panel only to realize that he still did not know how to work this panel.

"100 000?" Raditz asked as he stepped closer. "You should have rented him out for one night. We might have gotten a good price."

"A lot can happen in one night." Nappa said suggestively as he approached Gohan. The half-saiyan was leaning on the control panel with his hands, trying hard to ignore their conversation.

"A lot can happen in thirty minutes." Turles added, laughing cheerfully. "Knowing Gel he would have half-breed bending over the desk before Vegeta was even fully out of the room."

"The perks of being very cute." Nappa slapped a thick arm round Gohan's shoulder in a good-humored manner.

"Yeah yeah." Gohan looked over his shoulder to Vegeta. "What planet are we heading to now?"

Vegeta approached the control panel. The man studied the control panel for a moment while he contemplated their next move. "Planet Wero is close. It's part of Frieza's company but we might be able to go in, buy everything we need and get out."

The full-blooded saiyan waved Gohan away and the half-saiyan stepped aside so Vegeta could reach the entire control panel easily. The man started typing away on the panel, looking up several times to make sure the data on the screen was still accurate. The man glanced sideways and noticed that Gohan was watching his actions with curiosity.

"Back in the days," Vegeta stated suddenly, earning Gohan's attention, "space ships still had to be controlled relatively manually. We had to type in the coordinates of a particular planet we wanted to travel to and decide which path would be the quickest." Gohan smiled when he realized that Vegeta was actually trying to teach him something about controlling a space ship. "Now, the ships know where most planets are automatically. We can search for the nearest planets," Vegeta typed in something and Gohan watched how a map of the closest planets near them appeared on the screen, "choose a particular planet," The full-blooded saiyan slowly reached to the screen to press on the picture of a planet and the coordinates of the planet appeared next to the small icon instantly, "and set our course." Vegeta pressed on a series of buttons in order to confirm the set course. "Just like that." The screen showed their coordinates and the coordinates of the planet and calculated that they would be travelling for twenty hours before reaching their next destination.

"Gotta love technology." Gohan said as he watched the computer calculate everything they needed to know.

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

 **Planet Earth**

"I hate to break it to you, Justin." Goku tilted his head sideways to avoid being punched in the face by the younger warrior. The man grabbed Justin's wrist and held the alien tight. "You seem to be the weakest link in the saiyan party." He pulled Justin closer and pushed his knee deep into the warrior's stomach.

Justin gasped as the air was forced out of his body. The young warrior placed a hand on his stomach and made a pained face. Goku pushed Justin away and turned around, facing Katy, who had been watching the brief struggle between the two. Goku beckoned for Katy to attack him.

Goku was definitely stronger than most of the saiyans, excluding Gohan. He also had a different fighting style. That was what Katy really had to get used to. Goku had a playful style. The man seemed to consider everything a great game to test out his own strengths and limits. Goku took more risks because he didn't care if his strange tactics would work or not and they usually worked.

Katy reached up to make sure her bright pink hair was still tied up in a tail properly before powering up and launching at the saiyan warrior. Her rosy eyes were focused as she tried to land a punch but Goku avoided it easily. It was a warm day but the light-blue fabric of Katy's uniform was created for summer and even the softest breeze of wind went straight through the tough fabric and helped Katy feel refreshed.

The young warrior was not born on planet earth. She was actually born on planet Biona. At a young age, she left her home planet and joined the Planet Trade Organization to earn money for her poor family. That's where she met Gohan. The relationship between the two had a rocky start since Gohan's comrades did not approve of it. Katy was still not sure why they were so set on ruining the relationship between her and Gohan but in the end their love won. Nothing could tear them apart. Well, except for four terribly annoying saiyans who lied to their youngest comrades and kept the young warrior away from his girlfriend for six months.

Katy missed her other-half greatly but she kept herself occupied. She trained and trained and trained, trying hard to get stronger fast. The unavoidable battle with Frieza was looming somewhere on the horizon and Katy was not planning on leaving the fight to the men. She was going to fight for her own life. So she had to get stronger.

Goku floated backwards as Katy attacked him furiously. She had the tendency to work too hard, probably because she had something to prove, and tire herself out quickly. So Goku let her tire herself out.

After missing several times, Katy let out an annoyed growl. How was this man so fast? The young warrior powered up to her max before attacking Goku again. The full-blooded saiyan moved backward to avoid Katy's first few punches. He suddenly moved sideways, let Katy's fist pass him and he brought up his knee to push it into her stomach. Katy saw this move coming and she bent her legs up to protect her stomach. Goku's knee bumped against her shins and the two warriors let out a sound of pain. Taking advantage of Goku's momentary hesitance, Katy pushed out her legs and kicked Goku.

The man was thrown backwards. He used his energy to stop his body from falling before looking up to find out where Katy was. The young warrior was already on the offensive again, attacking Goku head on.

Justin took a sip from his bottle as he watched how Katy and Goku fought. The older full-blooded saiyan allowed Katy to take out her energy before but now he was fully on the offensive, pushing Katy back. Justin looked up at the blue sky. Not a cloud to be seen. It was a beautiful day and he loved spending these days on planet earth. The planet was one of the most beautiful he'd ever seen.

"They're strong."

Justin looked sideways when he heard the female voice and he smiled when he recognized the young woman that was approaching him. "They're improving. When the others return, we'll have a pleasant surprise for them."

Eighteen nodded as stopped next to Justin and looked up at the sky as well. "I do wonder how strong those saiyans will be when they come back. If what you two say about that lord Frieza is true we're going to need all the help we can get."

"You're going to help us when the time comes, right?" Justin asked.

Eighteen nodded again. "That was the deal." She responded. "You set me free and I help you fight off any threat to this planet."

"But you don't have to train with us." Justin's bright green eyes studied the android next to him. "I mean, I don't mind. You're strong and it's good for us to train with a strong opponent. However, why do you choose to stay here and train with us?" He asked. Eighteen's blue eyes focused on the two fighters in the air. She did not respond. "It's Krillin, isn't it?"

Justin knew Krillin still visited Eighteen to find out how she was doing. When she was still imprisoned Krillin often spent entire days there, talking to her. He was the one who suggested the deal. He wanted Eighteen to be free, even if that meant she would be able to leave capsule corp. and live somewhere far away from him.

The blonde warrior did look at him now. "That's none of your business. Now, are you here to train or not?" She asked before flying up.

"Ah, the precious denial of a person in love." Justin said cheerfully before following Eighteen up into the sky.

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

"Look what I found!" Turles walked in while carrying a small digital picture frame. Gohan noticed what Turles was carrying and he leaned forward on the table, crossing his arms over each other and hiding his face in them.

"It's the mysterious picture that tends to disappear." Raditz said cheerfully as he nudged the half-saiyan.

"I wonder who keeps moving that thing." Vegeta showed an amused smile as he typed on his computer.

"I don't understand why." Turles placed the picture back on the windowsill. The small frame showed a vivid picture of Gohan dressed up in a suit for his high school prom. "We're so proud of our little nerd that we can't help but show it off for everyone to see."

Gohan sat up straight again, slowly shaking his head as he turned back to his laptop. "Jerks. All of you." He muttered quietly.

Vegeta got up from the couch and placed his laptop on the table in front of him. The man headed for the table at which Gohan and Raditz were seated. "Did I just hear you… call me a name?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

Gohan gave a genuinely surprised glance over his shoulder. "I didn't think you would take it that seriously." He responded.

"You didn't think I would take it seriously that my subordinate calls me names?" He asked in a dangerously calm tone. The half-saiyan rolled his eyes at Vegeta's use of superiority and opened his mouth to respond but Vegeta got there first. "Did you just roll your eyes at me?" He stated, his voice softer now.

Raditz caught Turles's eye and Turles only shrugged in response. Gohan opened and closed his mouth, not entirely sure what to do now. "I-I'm sorry." He stated.

"You're sorry, huh? Sorry for what? The insubordination or just the plain bad attitude that comes with it?" Vegeta snarled at him. "Do I need to remind you of your place here? Do I need to remind you of your failed attempt to gain authority, child?"

Gohan clenched his teeth to stop himself from responding and he slowly shook his head. He'd hoped that Vegeta would have gotten over the whole authority issue by now. Sadly, the man was still on his power trip and he took every chance to remind Gohan of the young warrior's lower position.

Vegeta noticed Gohan had given up since the boy was now staring at the ground. The young warrior was not looking for a fight. The full-blooded warrior decided to add one last comment in order to keep the young warrior down but an alarm interrupted his words. Vegeta frowned as he looked up. Gohan blinked when a blue light started swinging around the room in order to alert them of danger.

"What the hell?" Vegeta muttered as he headed for the control room. The others followed him but before they could reach the control room the ship gave a sudden jolt, nearly throwing the saiyans off their feet.

Vegeta started running for the control room. The man reached the control panel first, placing his hands against the panel to stop his body from slamming into it. He immediately started typing away and once the others reached the control room several smaller screens were already flashing on the large screens that spanned all across the walls above the windows.

Gohan's gaze moved to the screen that showed a picture of the assaulting ship. The ship was smaller than theirs and definitely was a part of Frieza's empire. However, it was somewhat difficult from the regular soldier ships.

"Bounty hunters." Vegeta said, voicing Gohan's thoughts. "Well they just made the biggest mistake of their suddenly short lives." Vegeta started typing away, looking up at the screen so he could lock on to the target accurately.

The ship didn't even shake when Vegeta sent two bright red beams towards the target. The ship was only a tiny dot for them now but they could see a small red indication that the beams hit their target. However, the ship was still intact. The shield took the beams.

They could only watch as the enemy ship sent another beam in their direction. Their ship's shield could take the damage but the impact still made their ship shake. Gohan bit his lip. He already wasn't too fond of travelling space but now they were being attacked?

Vegeta was already back in action, typing away on the control panel and sending another beam to the enemy. Turles stepped closer and eyed the status of their shield. "The shield is not going to hold long enough for us to defeat them."

"I know." Vegeta responded calmly. The man studied the information that was flashing urgently on the screen. Gohan chewed on his lower lip as he studied the information as well. He was not trained in reading technical information but he knew what was going on here. The ship was in bad condition. They all had to steady themselves when the ship shook again.

"There is only one thing we can do." Vegeta said as he turned to the others.

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

"This is too easy." The soldier at the control panel laughed when a bright purple beam damaged the saiyan ship. "Their ship is not made for combat."

"Typical saiyans. They think they're superior to everyone else." The squad leader walked closer and looked up at the screen. "Get closer to their ship. We want to take them alive."

One of the younger soldiers frowned thoughtfully. "It was pretty easy, wasn't it?" He said slowly. The young warrior brushed through his black hair hesitantly. "Maybe… too easy?"

"Don't be stupid. Those saiyans are too cocky for their own good. They probably thought everyone would be too scared to take them on. But we're not stupid. We know how strong they really are." The squad leader said, brushing aside the young warrior's statement. "Thousands of credits for five stupid monkeys."

The younger warrior's blue eyes studied the ship on the screen. "However, they're not actually that weak." He stated quietly. The others looked in his direction. "Well, I met the youngest one in camp. He was one of the strongest of the all the cadets and he was just a child back then."

The squad leader turned to the youngest one fully. "He was one of the strongest of a bunch of raw recruits?" He said, smirking. "Well _that's_ impressive." He continued disdainfully. "We should watch out for that one, guys!" The others laughed in response to his taunt.

The youngest warrior rolled his eyes. "It's your call." He said, shrugging.

"Indeed it is." The squad leader turned his sight back to the large screen above them. His brown eyes studied the images and he smirked. "It's time for the fun part."

Once the saiyan ship was close enough they prepared to board the ship. The soldiers all powered up and were prepared for anything. The squad leader was eager to take down the saiyans. He adjusted his black uniform and made sure his basic beige armour was on properly. This was going to be exciting.

However, it was not all that exciting. The hallway they entered was empty. The squad leader led his comrades through the empty hallway, into a large training room and through several bedrooms, but they encountered nothing. No life.

The squad leader frowned as they entered the common room. "Where are they?" He asked out loud. "This ship is too small to have any extra smaller ships that can launch from the premises."

"Maybe we should go back to our ship. Something is wrong here." Another soldier said as he looked around. The man scratched over the light purple skin on his arm. His brown eyes studied their surroundings.

The squad leader headed for the doorway. "They must be in the control room." He said. "Let's go!" Egged on by their leader, the soldiers ran to the control room but they were greeted by an empty room.

One of the soldiers stepped closer to the control panel. "It looks like they left in a hurry. Everything is still working." The man typed something in and looked up. "They weren't travelling in a specific course. They were just floating."

"They weren't heading for anything?" The squad leader stepped closer and looked at the control panel. "I doubt that. Why would they exchange booty for credits if they aren't planning on spending the lot? They must have deleted their courses so we won't know where to look. Well, we're not that stupid." The man leaned over and started typing away at the panel. The squad leader was arrogant and vile but he wasn't stupid. He knew how to control space ships of any kind so some deleted routes were easy for him to pull back from the system. While he was trying to hack into the system the rest of the soldiers gathered in the common room. They did a quick search of the ship but did not manage to find anybody.

After a few tensed minutes, the squad leader stood straight and frowned at the panel. He failed to uncover anything because the defense in the system was too difficult for him to get through. "I've got to hand it to that Vegeta. He can conceal his movements…"

"Ah, that makes me feel so good about myself."

Simultaneously, the soldiers turned around to the voice that came from one of the doorways. The control room could be accessed from three different areas. One of the entrances was blocked by Vegeta, who sent the soldiers a smirk. Soon, the soldiers looked around and noticed the other entrances were blocked as well. Gohan and Turles were standing in one entrance and Raditz and Nappa were guarding the last one.

The squad leader of the enemy squad stepped towards Vegeta and pointed to the saiyan warrior. "Finally. You show yourself! We figured you monkeys got scared and ran!" He jeered as he stalked to Vegeta.

"Scared? Of a bunch of weaklings?" Vegeta raised an eyebrow. "You wouldn't even scare a butterfly." It occurred to him that a butterfly was a bug that lived typically on earth and the enemy soldier might not know what he was talking about, but he honestly didn't care whether they understood him or not.

The squad leader narrowed his eyes angrily before he raised his fist. "It's time we showed you how weak saiyans really are."

A nasty grin appeared on Vegeta's face. "I was about to say the same thing about you." He stated before he appeared in front of the squad leader. The saiyan prince easily reached out, pushed his fist right through the man's chest and pulled his fist back. They all stared at the still beating heart in Vegeta's fist before the soldier in front of him sank through his knees and fell to the ground, dead.

Vegeta casually tossed the heart away before turning to the others. "Who's next?" He asked cheerfully.

Everyone moved at once. The enemy soldiers tried to get away in different directions but the saiyans were ready and eager to stop them. There were nineteen enemy soldiers and only five Saiyans so the odds were stacked against them. However, this didn't stop the saiyans from annihilating every single one of them.

The room was filled with the sounds of fighting. Angry screams that eventually turned into shouts of fear and begging for mercy. The horrifying echoes of skin bruising, bones breaking and skulls cracking. Gohan was used to these sounds. He'd been hearing it since he was young, especially during his time as a planet purger. Just like then, he turned off his feelings easily.

The young warrior encountered his first two oponents. They seemed to think he was the easiest to attack as they launched at him head on. Gohan casually dove under their fists and turned around just as they stumbled forwards into the empty air. The two soldiers turned back to him, snarling insults at him. Gohan only smirked in return. Words could not physically hurt him. He could not understand the need for oponents to insult their enemy. It was only a waste of breath.

The half-saiyan powered up and motioned for them to attack him. That they did. The two soldiers tried hard to hit him, punching and kicking at the young warrior, but Gohan skillfully avoided every single punch. This only angered the two soldiers who considered themselves so superior to him.

After a few minutes, Gohan remembered that they had no time to lose and he focused on the task at hand. No more time for games. The young warrior let the soldiers come at him and he pushed the first one back with his raw energy so he could focus on the second one. The half-saiyan dodged the first punch, noticed an opening and blasted the man right through his chest. Ignoring the dead body that dropped at his feet, Gohan turned to the other soldier.

The grown man stared at his dead comrade before turning and running away. Gohan let out an annoyed groan. "Coward." He muttered before opening his hand and blasting the man in the back. The body disintegrated on the spot. The half-saiyan immediately went to work again.

Gohan appeared in front of one of the soldiers who tried to get away and he pulled back a fist, slamming it into the man's face. The half-saiyan was about to make another move when he recognized the person in front of him. The young warrior tilted his head sideways and frowned thoughtfully.

The person in front of him was young, a little bit older than Gohan, and he smiled weakly. "You recognize me?" The enemy soldier asked.

"I do. We met at camp, right?"Gohan asked hesitantly. The memories slowly came floating back to him. "You were a member of the Thunder group." This group containing the strongest warriors in the camp had been a constant negative influence in Gohan's life as the members tried to find every opportunity to make Gohan's life miserable.

"I was." The boy responded, nodding.

"Oh really?"

The two young warriors were so distracted by their meeting that they didn't notice the warzone around them settled down. Vegeta appeared next to Gohan and he looked the young enemy warrior up and down. "Interesting. Don't tell me the others were thunder members as well? I hate to miss out on torture opportunities."

The young alien raised both his eyebrows at Vegeta before giving a scared look at the warriors around him. He only now seemed to realize he was the only enemy warrior left. If the five saiyans managed to defeat his entire squad of nineteen warriors, how was he supposed to survive fighting all of them?

The young warrior flinched visibly when Turles placed both his strong hand on the boy's shoulders. "Well then, half-breed, what shall you do first? I honestly prefer cutting off the fingers and toes. Keeps them alive and kicking but it hurts like hell."

The fear was obvious in the boy's blue eyes. Vegeta rolled his shoulder and took off his dirty white gloves. "We don't have much time so hurry it up." The saiyan prince stated as he tossed his gloves aside one by one.

"Can I help?" Nappa rubbed his hands together eagerly. "I haven't properly tortured anyone in years. I'm dying to break some bones." The man gave a nasty grin to the now visibly shaking young enemy warrior.

Gohan studied the poor young warrior. Now that he recognized the alien he also remembered the things the alien did to him. The many times the alien joined the bullies whenever they ambushed the half-saiyan, beat him up and humiliated him, only because he was a saiyan.

He waited for the anger to fill him up. He wanted to be angry. He wanted to feel that restless sensation he always felt whenever he remembered the deepest and darkest moments in his life caused by these bullies. That thirst for revenge.

However, it wasn't there. A heavy load fell off his shoulders when he realized that he didn't hold a grudge anymore. He wasn't angry anymore. He moved on and torturing this former bully was not going to make Gohan's life any better.

Gohan couldn't hide his smile as he moved up his arm and aimed his hand at the alien. One shot. Turles stepped sideways as the alien's body went limp and fell to the ground. Gohan looked around when he noticed the shocked and somewhat disappointed glances from his comrades. "You heard Vegeta; we don't have time for this." The half-saiyan turned away from the dead body and looked at Vegeta. "Let's get out of here, shall we?"

The expression on Vegeta's face softened before he nodded. "Right." Vegeta looked at his comrades. "Good job, guys. We annihilated them. This ship is programmed to self-destruct in about three hours. Let's go to the other ship and make sure we're far away when it happens."

The ship they were taking was larger than their previous ship. The ship was made for twenty soldiers so the saiyans expected to find a lot of different bedrooms. However, they were surprised to find only two bedrooms, both stacked with five bunk beds.

The five saiyans stared at the two doors in silence for a moment. "Well," Vegeta started, "two in one room, three in the other. We can break apart some of the bunk beds and create five double beds." He suggested. "Rock, paper, scissors. The first two to win get to share the first room. The rest will share the other room. "

The others nodded and they all gathered to play a game of rock, paper, and scissors. Gohan was surprised when he won the first round. The half-saiyan did a victory punch in the air before heading to one of the bedrooms. There he started to break apart one of the bunk beds so he could make a large bed for himself.

It wasn't long before Nappa headed in the room. "Hello roomie!" He said cheerfully.

Gohan smiled at his oldest comrade. As the two saiyans created their beds, they took a few glances around. The room was relatively spacious. There were ten cabinets; five on one side and five on the left. Aside from that every bunk bed was equipped with a small bedside table that was attached to the bedframe.

Nappa and Gohan agreed Gohan would get the cabinets on the right and Nappa would take those on the left. The two saiyans both wanted to place their beds under the row of windows on one side of the room so they finally agreed to place the beds near to each other, leaving some space for the bedside tables.

After settling down, the five saiyans explored the rest of the ship. They quickly found out the reason for the limited amount of bedrooms.

"There is an entire floor for a training room?" Turles gasped as he looked around in the massive training room. It was bigger than any training room they'd ever seen.

"This is amazing!" Nappa said cheerfully. "Just imagine the trainings we could do in here."

The room was windowless, with red walls and a white floor. There was nothing else in the room. That was good because any machinery of any type would just get in the way.

The next floor was filled with a spacious common room, a kitchen, several closets filled with food and beverages and a few game rooms, some smaller weight rooms, a shower room, a swimming pool and of course the bedrooms. The soldiers would never get bored.

The top floor was where all the technical stuff was placed. An oxygen room filled with plants and a small pond with a tiny waterfall. Gohan could imagine jumping in that beautiful looking pond. They all headed for the control room and Vegeta started typing away on the control panel. "We'll need to adjust our course. I don't think we need to buy new resources for a while. The closets look full."

"So, what should we do now?" Gohan said as he looked up at the control panel.

"I know what we're going to do." Turles said as he stepped closer. The others gave him curious glances. "We're going to break in that training room with the most horrible training we've ever had!"

The others realized what Turles was saying and they exchanged grins. Now that was a suggestion they could not resist.

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 **Thanks for reading! Please review and let me know what you think!**

 **Until next time!**


	5. Chapter 5: One Step Out of Line

**Hey guys!**

 **Please excuse my absence. I'm going to try to update more regularly again.**

 **Previously on A Half-breed's Life 3:**

" _We know what's best, half-breed!" Nappa clapped him on the back cheerfully._

 _Gohan made a face. "Could you stop calling me that?"_

" _Oh come on, you've never had any problems with the nickname."_

" _Yes I did." Gohan complained. "I hate it. Why can't you call me by my real name?"_

" _If it really bothers you that much then why don't you fight for it?" Nappa suggested._

" _Fight for it?" Gohan grabbed the cloth again and squeezed the water out of it. He figured he might as well continue his work while they conversed._

" _Yeah. Challenge one of us. If you win, they have to call you by your real name. If they win, you have to do something for them. It's common for young saiyans to challenge their elders for something they want."_

 _Gohan raised both his eyebrows. "I didn't know I could do that."_

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 _The full-blooded warrior studied the half-saiyan for a moment before turning to the young warrior fully. The man's tail lashed behind him and followed a similar pattern to Gohan's tail._

 _Gohan's tail gave a brief push upwards. Turles laughed in response, shaking his head afterwards. "Get lost, kid." He said, waving the young warrior away._

 _Gohan repeated the movement, the tip of his tail pointing upwards to the ceiling. Turles's smile disappeared from his face. "Maybe I should call Vegeta and let him help me show you what happens to children who make too dominant tail gestures for their own good."_

" _Can't handle me on your own?" Gohan responded, smirking at the man._

 _Turles eyed Gohan's tail. "Half-breed…"_

" _I want you to stop calling me that." Gohan interrupted. "I challenge you for my name. If I win, you will call me by my real name."_

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" _How long is this trip going to be? The truth." Gohan responded as he stepped closer. Raditz seemed uncomfortable as he looked at Vegeta._

 _Vegeta held Gohan's gaze for a moment. "Six months." He answered._

" _Six months?" Gohan snarled. "What? How could you? Why? Did you…" The half-saiyan was at a loss for words._

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

 **Thanks for the reviews!**

 **Chapter 5. One step out of line.**

Gohan put his hands together above his head and created a blast. He knew not to put too much into the blast. They were not sure how much the walls of this ship could take. The young warrior pushed his hands forwards, sending his blast straight at his opponent.

The blast charged towards Turles head on and it seemed as if it was going to hit. The blast made contact with something and exploded, but Gohan was too experienced to assume he hit Turles. His comrades could disappear in a nano second.

"You gotta do better than that, kiddo." Turles yelled from somewhere above the half-saiyan. Dodging blasts like that was child's play for these warriors. The man sent the young warrior a smirk when Gohan looked up at him. Turles blinked and frowned when he realized Gohan was gone. The man looked around hurriedly but was too late to block the attack from behind. Two boots connected with his spine, pushing with such force that his bones winced under the pressure. Luckily for Turles, gravity took over easily and the man was thrown forwards to the ground.

Turles gritted his teeth, pushing his power through his body and using his energy to slow down, turn in the air and land on his two feet. However, before Turles could really land, Gohan appeared right behind him, pulled back a fist and knocked the man off his feet. This time Turles crashed down on the ground a few feet away from the half-saiyan.

Turles crawled back to his feet and growled in annoyance. He clenched his fists and powered up to his max. The man noticed the smug expression on Gohan's face and he realized not for the first time that the adults were the ones to blame for the boy's sadistic behaviour during their spars. He learned from the best.

Turles launched at the half-saiyan once more, pulling back a fist and trying to punch the younger warrior. Gohan leaned his head sideways to avoid the punch and before Turles could respond the half-saiyan's tail curled around the man's lower arm and pulled him closer. Gohan pushed his fist deep into Turles's stomach. The half-saiyan made a face when Turles spit out saliva and some drops hit his cheek and exposed shoulder.

They'd been at it for so long that there were several gaps and tears in Gohan's armour and uniform. A training session between saiyans wasn't just union of spars. No, they entered the training rooms with the intention to tear each other apart, and that's exactly what they did.

The air was thick with the penetrating scent of perspiration and blood. The only sound they heard was the exhausted panting and the pained grunts of their opponents. Their perfect little world revolved around their own bodies and how far they could push themselves in this unending struggle for survival.

Gohan moved back and used his still gloved hand to wipe some spit off his shoulder. The young warrior made an annoyed face. "Disgusting." He muttered.

Turles used this moment of peace to recover from Gohan's latest attack. The man studied the young warrior he'd known for only four short years. Gohan had grown so much since Turles met the boy. Not necessarily in size or body, but in spirit. When he first met the young warrior, Gohan was just a spirited little brat who disobeyed orders and argued with his comrades about pretty much anything. Typical teenager.

Back then, Turles would have laughed loudly in the face of anyone who would try to tell him how much he would care for the boy one day. The man watched as Gohan returned from the war a grown man. War would change any man. The lights that used to sparkle in the boy's eyes were gone entirely. Of course, most of this was caused by the betrayal of Gohan's best friend Justin and the agonizing days after that Gohan spend in the dungeon where he was constantly bullied and tortured by Zarbon, a man who hated Gohan's spirit and wanted to break the boy once and for all.

After they defeated Zarbon and escaped from the World Trade Organization, Turles watched as the half-saiyan slowly but surely changed back to the cheerful bratty young boy he used to be before he left for war. The sparkles returned to the boy's eyes but Turles was pretty sure they used to be brighter.

Gohan suddenly met his eyes and Turles realized he'd been staring at the half-saiyan. Gohan raised an eyebrow at him when he noticed the strange look on Turles's face. "You're not getting emotional on me, are you?" The half-saiyan called over to his comrade. "I didn't punch you _that_ hard did I?"

Turles noticed the amused tone in Gohan's and the man shook his head. "Aren't you a little too old to show such a bratty attitude?" He countered as he placed his hands on his hips.

Gohan made an exaggerated bow. "I learned from the best." He kept his eyes on his opponent at all times.

"I was just thinking the same thing." Turles muttered in response. He wasn't really planning on letting Gohan hear this but the change in the half-saiyan's expression let him know that Gohan did catch it.

Turles lowered his body into a defensive stance. Gohan followed his example, grinning excitedly. Turles launched at the young warrior and tried to kick him but Gohan moved his body aside quickly to avoid it. Turles let out a growl when he realized the half-saiyan dodged his kick. The man used his tail to snatch at Gohan's wrist. The young warrior let out a gasp when a tug at his wrist pulled him down and he was slammed into the ground. Before he could react, Turles placed his foot on Gohan's spine and pushed him back to the ground.

Turles bent his knee a little and leaned on his upper leg with his elbow, smirking when Gohan groaned in response to this added weight. "So, why don't you tell me some more about how much of a brat I am?" Turles suggested.

Gohan looked over his shoulder at his comrade. "Get off me."

"Throw me off."

Gohan powered up and used his sheer energy to throw Turles off his feet. The young warrior pushed his body up and turned to Turles fully. "Now you've done it." The half-saiyan grinned as he powered up further and further, pushing straight through the barrier of the super saiyan level.

The energy pushed his hair upwards and a fire from within his heart changed his hair to a beautiful golden colour. His turquoise eyes focused on Turles and the half-saiyan tensed his body to attack the man.

However, the half-saiyan let out a gasp when something shivered in his body and he lost the transformation. His black hair fell down and his brown eyes gave a questioning look. The young warrior stopped and looked at his own hands. "What the hell?"

Turles placed his hands on his hips. "You do keep losing that transformation often, don't you?" He taunted.

Gohan sent his uncle a glare and tried to power up again, hoping that this was just a slip up. However, he couldn't focus his power. He was unable to grasp that sensation he felt whenever he transformed.

Gohan's uncle frowned before turning and cupping his hands to his face. "Vegeta!" He called.

"Wha-?" Gohan rushed closer to Turles and grabbed his upper arm, pulling it down. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Vegeta needs to know you're having trouble with your transformation." Turles responded, shrugging.

"No, he doesn't."

"Half-bree—Gohan." Turles said, correcting his own mistake quickly. "The quicker we let Vegeta know, the quicker we can solve your problem. He's better at these kinds of things." The man pointedly looked down to where Gohan's hand was still clutching his upper arm and the half-saiyan released him.

Turles resumed calling for Vegeta while Gohan lowered to the ground. Once he landed safely on the ground, he headed for the refreshment table. There were several bottles of water on the table and Gohan grabbed one of them, opened it and turned around while taking a sip.

Turles was already speaking to Vegeta and within several seconds, Vegeta's gaze moved to the half-saiyan. Gohan considered leaving the room. Vegeta'd been hard on him when it came to the transformation. He wanted Gohan to get used to the transformation so he forced the half-saiyan to stay transformed during their endless fights. It was difficult for the young warrior to achieve. A twenty-hour fight was already tough when he was in his base form, but in his transformed form, it was almost unbearable after a while.

The half-saiyan could understand why Vegeta was so strict. As long as nobody else transformed, defeating Frieza was mostly up to Gohan's ability to transform. Goku and Gohan together would be difficult for Frieza to defeat.

The half-saiyan leaned against the table with his back, one of his hands curled around the edge of the table so he could lean on it easier. Vegeta landed right next to him but Gohan didn't stir. The adult reached over and grabbed a bottle of water. Opening it, he took a sip, swirling the water in his mouth before swallowing it.

Gohan absently sipped from his water too while he waited for Vegeta to get to the point. The saiyan prince placed his bottle on the table. "You failed to transform? I thought I ordered you to be transformed at all times during our spars? Why were you only trying to transform now?"

The half-saiyan didn't look at him. "Turles is exaggerating. I can transform just fine."

"Okay. So transform." Vegeta responded. Gohan looked at him now. "Right now please." Vegeta motioned to the area around them.

The half-saiyan bit on his lower lip. "I can transform." He repeated. "I'm just a bit tired right now. I'll transform later."

"Now, brat." Vegeta snarled. "I make the rules around here, not you."

"Can't you see I'm trying to rest here? We have some rest moments. Let me finish my drink." Gohan responded, obviously stalling, as he went to take another sip. He hoped Vegeta would return to the fight while Gohan finished his drink and the man would forget about it.

However, this hope was destroyed when Vegeta casually reached out; placing his hand over the hand Gohan was holding the bottle in and squeezing tightly, crushing the bottle. The half-saiyan was just about to take a sip and the water sprayed all over his face and shoulders. The young warrior was so surprised that he relaxed his grip on the bottle so Vegeta could easily take it and he let the rest of the water run out.

"Done." Vegeta tossed the empty bottle away.

Gohan took a deep breath to calm his anger. The thought to punch his squad leader crossed his mind but he knew Vegeta would only get even angrier and he would be bullying Gohan for the rest of the young warrior's live. However long that may turn out to be.

The half-saiyan pushed away from the table and took a few steps to get some space. He closed his eyes for a moment to focus his energy. The young warrior clenched his fists as he powered up. He willed his body to transform. He needed to transform to show Vegeta that he could. However, he couldn't get to it. That sensation he always got whenever he transformed. That trigger deep inside his soul that allowed him to tap into his reserves, his energy.

The young warrior opened his eyes. He lowered his gaze to the ground, unwilling to admit what they both knew. Vegeta stepped closer. "You're not focused." He snarled as he approached the young warrior.

"I am." Gohan responded tiredly.

"Not enough." Vegeta shot back. "You need to focus." He put his fingers together and angrily tapped against Gohan's forehead every time he spoke the last three words. "Focus. Right. Now."

The half-saiyan's patience ran thin quickly and he pushed Vegeta's hand away. "It's hard to focus when someone is bashing in your head." He snarled.

Vegeta snorted. "If you get so distraught by a few little love taps you'll have a real hard time during a real fight." He crossed his arms over each other. "Get out."

"What?"

"We don't need weaklings to slow us down. When you step in this room you will be in your transformed status and not in your base form. You're not allowed to enter this room when the hair on your head is still brown."

"You're kicking me out?" The half-saiyan's mouth was wide open.

The look in Vegeta's eyes turned amused. "Not yet, but I will if you don't start moving now."

"Vegeta, I…"

"Close the door on your way out." The man turned away from the half-saiyan and headed back to the centre of the room.

Gohan lowered his gaze. "What am I supposed to do then? Wait for you to return?"

Vegeta shrugged. "It's not my concern. Now leave."

The half-saiyan felt a hot flush of anger in his body. "If you send me away now I'm leaving the ship. I'll go straight home." He snarled. Vegeta turned around and raised an eyebrow.

The man chuckled and shook his head. "You wouldn't dare." He said in an amused tone.

Gohan turned instantly and walked away, heading straight for the door. Vegeta frowned as he followed the half-saiyan. "Half-breed!" He called. When he realized Gohan was not going to listen he quickly followed the half-saiyan. "Half-breed! Come back here!"

Nappa, Raditz and Turles looked up when their attention was caught by Vegeta's screams. They exchanged glances before following the two saiyans.

"Half-breed!" Vegeta caught up with Gohan in the supply room. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

The half-saiyan ignored him as he went around the room and tossed everything he could eat instantly without having to prepare it in a brown bag. Vegeta crossed his arms over each other. "So you're going to spend months alone in a small ship?"

Gohan closed the bag and headed for the doorway. Vegeta purposely got in his way to stop the half-saiyan from moving any further. However, Gohan did not stop and only pushed Vegeta aside. The man gave out an outraged growl and he stalked after the half-saiyan.

"When are you supposed to train for Frieza then huh? Did you even think about that? Is your honour a good enough reason to sacrifice your planet?" Vegeta snarled as he followed the young warrior.

Vegeta followed Gohan to the launching centre. There was a small area from which smaller solo ships could be sent. There were only three of them and only one person could fit in a ship, but that was enough for the half-saiyan. Gohan headed straight for one of the ships and opened it.

"Half-breed! Stay here!" Vegeta snarled at him.

Gohan turned to the man. "Why?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. "Because you tell me to?"

"I am your leader."

"I am done being your subordinate." Gohan tossed the bag in the small space pod. "Gosh, I try so hard for you people but you never cut me some slack. If I can't do anything right then I might as well leave and let you fend for yourself without me!"

"All this drama because I tossed your weak butt out on the sidewalk?" Vegeta taunted, placing his hands on his hips. "Honestly, half-breed, your little mistress rubbed off on you. Emotions are feminine thing, remember?"

The half-saiyan held Vegeta gaze for a moment before he let out a sigh and turned to the space pod. He was about to crawl inside when a hand landed on his shoulder. Vegeta forcefully turned the half-saiyan around to face him. "You're not going anywhere." Vegeta growled.

Gohan pushed Vegeta's hands off of him. "What are you going to do, huh?" He snarled as he pushed Vegeta back. "Beat me up? Push me down? Lock me up? Chain me to my bed?" Every sentence was accompanied by another push until Vegeta was practically foaming at the mouth in anger.

"I will do anything that I need to do to keep my subordinates under my control." Vegeta snarled in response. "I don't mind going back to more primitive accommodations if I have to."

If Vegeta meant to anger the half-saiyan even further, he succeeded. Gohan gave Vegeta another push, earning an angry growl from the man. "You might have been able to chain a fourteen-year-old down but you cannot contain a grown man. Right now I am strong enough to do what I want and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it."

"Gohan…" The others caught up with them and now Turles was slowly trying to approach the angry young warrior. "Calm down. I'm not really sure what happened but please calm down."

"Don't tell him to calm down!" Vegeta snarled in response. Turles gave Vegeta an annoyed expression but the saiyan prince was too angry to listen to reason. "I'm not going to apologize to a brat." He turned to Gohan again. "You may think you're a grown adult but you're nothing more than a whiny little baby. Filthy bastards like you should know your place!"

"Vegeta!" Raditz said, shocked by something he would have no problem saying years ago. Discriminating Gohan because of the fact that he was only a half-blood saiyan was something they hadn't done in a very long time. Yes, they might use the word 'half-breed' to tease the young warrior and because of habit but it wasn't meant in a mean way, not anymore.

Gohan narrowed his eyes and powered up. The half-saiyan gave a roar of anger and launched at the older warrior. Vegeta did not see this coming. Before he knew it he was slammed back into the wall and his world went black.

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

 **Planet Earth**

"Good morning." Katy greeted cheerfully as she passed Bulma.

"Good afternoon I'd say." Bulma corrected as she watched the other walk to the coffee machine. "Late training session last night?"

"Fourteen hours straight." Katy blew out a sigh. "I needed that nap." After placing her white cup she pressed a button to activate the machine. The young woman studied the earthling at the table. "Did you sleep at all? You look tired."

"Thanks a lot." Bulma responded in mock-agitation before smiling sadly. "I've been sick all morning. Throwing up my guts all over the bathroom. I'm glad my stomach settled down." She complained as she pushed her fork into a slice of her pancake and swiped it over the plate to pick up the last remains of the syrup. "I'm starving."

"So after throwing up all morning you decided the proper thing to eat are pancakes." Katy turned sideways to grab her now full cup of coffee.

"I really wanted to eat pancakes. Why not give in to my cravings for once?" Bulma responded as she shrugged.

"Hmmm. I don't think I will ever understand the human mind fully." Katy muttered as she sat down at the table.

"I think it's the female mind that's at play here." Justin said cheerfully as he entered the kitchen. He fell down on a chair and yawned broadly.

"You want coffee?" Katy offered as she got up. Justin nodded once and she went ahead to prepare a cup for him. "Wanna have another training session today?" Katy suggested as she turned so she could look at them.

"Sure." Justin nodded once. "We should stop by Goku and see if he wants to join us. He can really help us push ourselves. Those saiyans are some species."

Katy smiled sadly as she thought about her boyfriend, very far away from her. "I know." She stated as she grabbed Justin's cup and brought it back to the table. The young woman sat down at the table and let her thoughts wander for a moment. They hadn't heard from the saiyans for more than a month. They didn't know where they were, how the training was going. For all they knew they could have been caught by Frieza already.

Katy could feel her body growing cold as she thought about Frieza and horrifying images about what Frieza and his henchmen could do to her boyfriend and his comrades popped up in her mind. The young woman flinched when Justin placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Are you okay?" Justin asked quietly.

"Yes. I'm fine." Katy smiled at him as she picked up her coffee cup. "Just being morbid, I guess."

"I was saying that we can find a wasteland to fight so that we won't be confined by the walls of the gravity room. I mean, the GR is great, but it's always easier to fight out in the open." Justin said, giving a quick glance in Bulma's direction.

Katy smiled as she watched Justin's behaviour. Bulma's moods had been unpredictable lately. One moment she was as happy as a saiyan with a full-belly and the next she was murderous. It was difficult to predict her moods and Justin often got the full load. Katy knew when to stay away.

Luckily, Bulma was in a good mood. She nodded once. "It's good for you to train in different environments. You'll never know when or where you'll be fighting Frieza. Being used to one environment could be a weakness."

"Exactly!" Justin said happily. "That's settled then."

Katy sent the other warrior a grin and only received a glare. He knew exactly what she was thinking. The three friends flinched when the cup in Katy's hand exploded into many different pieces.

The young woman gave a shocked glance at her hands and noticed it was clenched into a tight fist. She quickly shook her hand only to find out that it was normal again afterwards. The female warrior looked up at the others and noticed they were as shocked as she was.

"What happened?" Bulma asked.

"I don't know. My hand acted on its own. I haven't felt anything like this since…." She gasped when she realized when was the last time her body reacted to something she didn't know anything about. "Gohan lost his temper." Her gaze turned to Justin and she immediately knew that he was thinking the same thing.

"He's fine. He probably had a falling out with the others. Those guys always fight, especially when they're locked up together in a small ship 24/7." Justin said calmly.

"You're probably right." Katy blew out a sigh. "I just wish I knew how they're doing."

"Knowing those saiyans," Justin said, smiling, "they're out there making each other's lives miserable."

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Vegeta woke with a massive headache. The man groaned and placed a hand on his forehead. He had a horrible headache. He was not entirely sure how he got it. What happened? His gaze momentarily went to his comrades before something shiny caught his eyes. The man widened his eyes and got up as he studied the place he was currently in.

Shiny yellow bars were surrounding Vegeta and the other three adults. The man stepped closer to the bars and studied them more closely, realizing they were actually energy beams. The man reached out and went to touch the bars.

"I wouldn't touch that if I were you."

Vegeta looked up and noticed that Gohan was sitting on a chair, outside of the cage, and looking back at him. After a quick look around Vegeta noticed the full-blooded saiyans were lying in the cage. "It tends to hurt." The half-saiyan continued, amused sparks in his eyes.

"What the hell is going on?" Turles was sitting up and looking around curiously.

"Payback." Gohan stated sweetly. "Locking you guys up is so satisfying."

Vegeta crossed his arms over each other and frowned at the young warrior. "And you think we can't get out of here?"

Gohan shrugged casually. "You can try. It will only be so much more amusing to watch you guys try to hopelessly power up. Those bars are unbreakable unless attempted by me."

Raditz studied the bars. "Wow, you did a good job." He muttered more to himself than to the others.

"I learned from the best." Gohan responded before leaning back on his seat and crossing his arms over each other. The half-saiyan looked utterly amused at the sight.

"Let us go, brat." Vegeta snarled as he glared at the young warrior.

"No."

"You do know there will be payback after this, right?" Turles smirked at the young warrior. He was more or less amused by Gohan's attempt to retaliate.

"I'm counting on it." Gohan responded, returning his smirk.

"So what do you think this is going to accomplish?" Vegeta asked as he stepped closer to the bars.

The young warrior shrugged casually. "Nothing really. It was just satisfying."

"I'll bet." Nappa said, still sitting on the ground. He didn't even bother getting up but was lazily leaning against the wall.

"I hope this is not one of your new attempts to gain authority." Vegeta pushed, frowning at the young warrior. "A failed one at that."

Gohan blew out a sigh. "Vegeta. I'm not going to try to overthrow you. Not for a while at least." He responded in a tired voice. "I'm not ready to lead this squad yet, I know that now."

Vegeta crossed his arms over each other. "However, you never really subjected to my authority either. As long as you don't give in to my power I will continue to assume you're opting for the leader position."

"But I did subject to your leadership!" Gohan snarled as he jumped up.

"No you didn't!"

"Yes I did!" Gohan snarled as he stepped closer. "Don't you get it, Vegeta? You won!" The half-saiyan stopped right in front of the cage and he spread his arms. "You won the moment you guys rescued me from the dungeon. You took me in because you wanted a perfect little soldier to help you defeat Frieza and here I am; a super saiyan on the run from the strongest warrior alive. Where am I going to go without you guys? I have to fight him now because he'll kill me otherwise. And I can't face him without you. I'm officially stuck and you guys are stuck here with me."

Vegeta did not respond so Gohan took a deep breath and continued his rant. "Stop fighting me, Vegeta. I've been thinking and I now know why I have trouble focusing my energy. It's because every time I show even the slightest bit of strength you get all threatened on me and assume I'll try to take over the squad. I can't focus my energy if I'm constantly concerned about your response to it." The half-saiyan let out a sigh. "That's what I needed to say." He muttered eventually a little awkwardly.

Turles showed a grin. "You said it well. Good for you, kiddo." He said cheerfully. In Turles's opinion Vegeta was definitely overreacting when it came to Gohan's behaviour. The half-saiyan might have been a difficult child to tame and he still showed typical teenage tantrums but the young warrior was really trying to be good. He was working hard in order to get stronger and he was putting up with Vegeta's bullying gracefully.

Vegeta sent the full-blooded saiyan a glare before turning to Gohan again. "Noted. Now get us out of this cage." He snarled.

The half-saiyan shrugged as he turned away from them. "Get out of there yourself." He responded. "I'm not going to save your asses."

"These bars are unbreakable." Vegeta snarled as he watched the young warrior walk away.

Gohan turned around in the doorway. "Are they?" He asked as a smirk appeared on his face.

Vegeta frowned confusedly before he reached out and curled his hand around one of the bars. He put pressure on it and the energy-bar disintegrated easily. Vegeta's mouth was wide open as he looked at the gap in the cage. The others gave gasps as the entire cage suddenly started to disappeared, bar after bar, disintegrating into thin air.

"Guess what." Gohan showed an amused grin when Vegeta looked back to him. "I learned to lie with a straight face." The young warrior turned and left the room, leaving the speechless saiyan warriors to stare after him.

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

Gohan leaned on the control panel with his hands as he looked up at the screens. Since they moved to this ship they put a constant guard in the control room in order to keep an eye on the alarm system, in case someone would try to attack them again.

Vegeta stepped inside and glanced up at the screen. "Everything going alright here?" The man asked as he stepped closer.

"All is well." Gohan responded as he looked over his shoulder. "There was a ship flying by a while ago but they sent out a friendly hello and went on their way."

"Good." Vegeta studied the panel for a moment. "How are you doing?"

Gohan glanced sideways but Vegeta was not looking at him. "I'm fine, I guess." The half-saiyan responded awkwardly. "What about you?"

"Never better." Vegeta's gruff reply made a smile appear on Gohan's face. The smaller warrior took a deep breath before turning to the young warrior fully. "Half-breed, certain things were said in the heat of the moment earlier today."

"It's okay." Gohan shrugged.

"No, it's not." Vegeta shook his head. "I know that we used to say things like that to you all the time mainly because we knew it would bother you. However, I never really considered you any less of person because of your genetics, boy." He stated. "I knew your strength was not under any circumstances tempered with by your half-saiyan blood. If anything I was positive that was exactly what made you so strong."

"But… if you didn't hate me for being a half-blood, then why did you say that all the time?"

"Isn't that obvious?" Vegeta responded, shrugging. "You were bothered by it. Every time we commented on your un-pure blood we could see the pain in your eyes. You tried to hide it but we could easily see it got to you. They say that words don't hurt but everyone with half a brain knows that's not true. Words can be just as damaging as any physical torture if you try long enough."

Gohan lowered his gaze to the control panel. He wasn't entirely sure what to say. Indeed, the others used to comment on the fact that he was a half-breed all the time when he just joined them and after a while Gohan got used to it. Maybe he just accepted it as a fact that he was less worthy because he was a half-breed. He was so used to being called a worthless hybrid that he eventually experienced it as normal, as something he was supposed to go through, as something everyone thought about him when they saw him.

But that wasn't true. Being a hybrid didn't make him worthless. Just because people used to call him names that didn't mean he was what they called him. He was more than what others told him to be.

The half-saiyan turned to his comrade and the half-saiyan sent the older warrior a smile. "So, are you going to call me by my real name from now on?" He asked.

Vegeta chuckled. "I'm not _that_ sorry." He responded as he crossed his arms over each other. "No, you're going to have to officially fight me for that one."

"Ah man." Gohan complained playfully before turning to the control panel. "I'll challenge you for it one day."

Vegeta's expression turned to an amused one as he looked up at the younger warrior. The man briefly studied Gohan's determined expression and his own expression softened somewhat.

"Come and get it."

 ******* DBZ **** DBZ ******

 **Thanks for reading! Please review and let me know what you think!**

 **Until next time~**


	6. Chapter 6: Saiyan Antics

**Hey you!**

 **I updated a chapter last week and now I'm updating again! Aren't you proud of me?**

 **No?**

 **Oh well…**

 **Enjoy!**

 **Previously on A Half-breed's Life 3:**

" _We know what's best, half-breed!" Nappa clapped him on the back cheerfully._

 _Gohan made a face. "Could you stop calling me that?"_

" _Oh come on, you've never had any problems with the nickname."_

" _Yes I did." Gohan complained. "I hate it. Why can't you call me by my real name?"_

" _If it really bothers you that much then why don't you fight for it?" Nappa suggested._

" _Fight for it?" Gohan grabbed the cloth again and squeezed the water out of it. He figured he might as well continue his work while they conversed._

" _Yeah. Challenge one of us. If you win, they have to call you by your real name. If they win, you have to do something for them. It's common for young saiyans to challenge their elders for something they want."_

 _Gohan raised both his eyebrows. "I didn't know I could do that."_

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

 _The full-blooded warrior studied the half-saiyan for a moment before turning to the young warrior fully. The man's tail lashed behind him and followed a similar pattern to Gohan's tail._

 _Gohan's tail gave a brief push upwards. Turles laughed in response, shaking his head afterwards. "Get lost, kid." He said, waving the young warrior away._

 _Gohan repeated the movement, the tip of his tail pointing upwards to the ceiling. Turles's smile disappeared from his face. "Maybe I should call Vegeta and let him help me show you what happens to children who make too dominant tail gestures for their own good."_

" _Can't handle me on your own?" Gohan responded, smirking at the man._

 _Turles eyed Gohan's tail. "Half-breed…"_

" _I want you to stop calling me that." Gohan interrupted. "I challenge you for my name. If I win, you will call me by my real name."_

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

" _How long is this trip going to be? The truth." Gohan responded as he stepped closer. Raditz seemed uncomfortable as he looked at Vegeta._

 _Vegeta held Gohan's gaze for a moment. "Six months." He answered._

" _Six months?" Gohan snarled. "What? How could you? Why? Did you…" The half-saiyan was at a loss for words._

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

 _Gohan blew out a sigh. "Vegeta. I'm not going to try to overthrow you. Not for a while at least." He responded in a tired voice. "I'm not ready to lead this squad yet, I know that now."_

 _Vegeta crossed his arms over each other. "However, you never really subjected to my authority either. As long as you don't give in to my power I will continue to assume you're opting for the leader position."_

" _But I did subject to your leadership!" Gohan snarled as he jumped up._

" _No you didn't!"_

" _Yes I did!" Gohan snarled as he stepped closer. "Don't you get it, Vegeta? You won!" The half-saiyan stopped right in front of the cage and he spread his arms. "You won the moment you guys rescued me from the dungeon. You took me in because you wanted a perfect little soldier to help you defeat Frieza and here I am; a super saiyan on the run from the strongest warrior alive. Where am I going to go without you guys? I have to fight him now because he'll kill me otherwise. And I can't face him without you. I'm officially stuck and you guys are stuck here with me."_

 **Chapter 6. Saiyan Antics**

"Get out!"

Gohan stopped swimming when he heard Vegeta's snarl. The half-saiyan turned upright in the water and moved his arms and legs to keep his head above the water.

"Aww, but Vegeta, I want to swim." Nappa complained as he stepped closer and studied the water. Wearing only his spandex shorts, the man looked about ready to jump in the water.

"No." Vegeta shook his head, sending Nappa a stern glance. "Half-breed's training." The half-saiyan decided to swim to the edge of the pool.

"So?" Nappa asked. "He doesn't need the whole pool."

"The moment the brat and someone else are in the same pool the training is out the door." Vegeta responded as he stepped closer to the tall saiyan warrior. "Get lost."

Gohan reached the edge and placed his arms on the white floor so he could lean on them while Nappa complained to Vegeta: "I won't play." Nappa tried. "I won't even go near him."

"It's not you I'm worried about." Vegeta growled before turning to the half-saiyan. "Half-breed, start swimming before I drown you."

The young warrior sent Vegeta an innocent smile. The man was still halfway across the room so the boy wasn't in a hurry to follow Vegeta's order. "Let him swim with me. I'll be good." Gohan suggested.

"I've known you longer than today." The Saiyan prince was heading for the half-saiyan but Gohan still didn't move. "Obedience is not of your strongest trades."

"I wouldn't dare to defy you." Gohan's eyes twinkled as he watched Vegeta approach. The half-saiyan pulled his arms off the edge of the pool and instead chose to hold onto it with his hands. He needed to be able to push off if needed.

"Hmm…" Vegeta stopped in front of him half-saiyan, looking down at him. "Get back to your training, brat." He ordered.

"I don't understand why Nappa can't join me." Gohan responded as he looked up. "We could do a race or something. It would only aid in my training. Auch!" Before Gohan could react Vegeta stepped on his fingers. The half-saiyan tried to pull his hand free but his fingers were stuck between the white floor and Vegeta's equally white boot. "Okay! Okay! I get it!" He said hurriedly.

Vegeta stepped back and the half-saiyan quickly swam back a bit to create distance between them. "Crush my fingers, why don't you?" The young warrior complained.

"Get back to your training before I crush your spine too." Vegeta responded, glaring at the young warrior.

Gohan made a rude face at the saiyan prince before he started swimming laps again. Vegeta watched him a moment, slowly shaking his head in disapproval before realizing that Nappa was still in the room and eying the pool with a sad expression. The saiyan prince turned to the older warrior. "The same goes for you. Get out of here."

"Alright." Nappa motioned for Vegeta to calm down by putting his hands up. The man quickly turned and left the room.

Vegeta made a disapproving sound with his tongue. "It's so difficult to find obedient subordinates these days." He complained before turning back to watch over the youngest saiyan warrior.

A few hours later, Vegeta allowed the half-saiyan to get out of the pool. He demanded it as he wanted to use the pool himself. Gohan swam to the edge of the pool and leaned on it with his lower arms while staying in the water.

"Hey Vegeta." Gohan called. The saiyan prince was sitting on a bench near him in order to take off his boots.

"What now?"

Gohan studied the saiyan prince while he leaned on the edge of the pool with his arms. He remembered being put off by Vegeta's rude behaviour when he first joined the saiyans several years ago. The man would only snarl at the young warrior whenever Gohan asked something. After all these years Vegeta hadn't changed a bit. The man would still snarl whenever the young warrior approached him but Gohan couldn't be bothered by it anymore. It was just how Vegeta was.

"Do you remember the girl we met back on that trading planet? It's where we traded the booty for credits." Gohan explained as he watched Vegeta take off his boots.

"Is this memory game going anywhere?" Vegeta got up and started to take off his armour.

"That girl we met there. She was from Katy's planet." Gohan continued. He still remembered her short pink hair and her rosy eyes.

"We're not going to planet Biona." Vegeta was already wearing his spandex pants under the armour and now headed to the pool.

"But how do you know…"

"I've known you longer than today, half-breed, it is quite a predictable move on your part." Vegeta sat down near the half-saiyan and let his legs test out the temperature of the water. "However, I am surprised you expect me to agree with your wish."

"Well I just…" Gohan shrugged as he lowered his gaze to the white floor. "I hoped you would…"

"What? Jump at the chance to make your wishes come true?" Vegeta laughed before looking down at the half-saiyan again. "I think the water on planet earth poisoned your brain. You're becoming dim-witted."

Gohan scoffed before pulling himself up and crawled on the white floor. The young warrior was about to get up fully when something furry curled around his arm. Gohan glanced sideways and noticed Vegeta's tail was locked around his arm, telling the young warrior to stay put.

"There is one more reason why I knew you were going to ask about Katy's planet." Vegeta stated without looking at the young warrior. Gohan lowered his body and knelt down next to the older warrior so he could talk to the man easier. "Have you focused on putting up those walls recently?"

Gohan thought about this for a moment. He frowned when a headache suddenly shot through his head. The young warrior placed a hand on his head and opened and closed his eyes to find out whether it was because of the light. The headache multiplied suddenly and Gohan sank through his knees. The tail tightened around his arm to hold him up and Gohan realized what was happening.

"Stop it Vegeta!" He snarled, closing his eyes again. The headache disappeared instantly.

"Well that answered my question." Vegeta responded as he released the half-saiyan. Gohan sat down entirely and let out a sigh. "That's probably why that Namekian could mess with you so easily. And here I was assuming you were strong enough to actually throw off a mental attack."

"You caught me off guard." Gohan responded, frowning.

"That doesn't matter. You should have been ready to throw me out." Vegeta said as he glared at the young warrior. "But you weren't. We're going to work on that. We'll do daily meditation sessions starting tonight."

"But Vegeta…" Gohan made a face. "I hate meditating. It's boring."

"Don't worry." Vegeta showed a smirk as he studied the young warrior in front of him. "You won't be bored. I'll make sure of that." The man enjoyed the confused and somewhat apprehensive expression on Gohan's face for a few seconds before waving the young warrior away. "Now get out. I need to train."

Gohan made a face as he got up and headed for the bench where a towel was waiting for him. The young warrior grabbed the towel and wrapped it around his shoulders. He turned to watch Vegeta swim around in the pool. What was the man planning for him now? He wasn't even sure if he wanted to find out…

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

 **Planet Earth**

"Oh man, this is scary." Justin muttered as his bright green eyes studied the scenery in front of him.

"Oh yes." Goku crossed his arms over each other. "But all we have to do is be quiet. Don't make any sudden movements. And especially, do not say a thing."

"What do you think about this one?" Bulma held out a black dress and held it in front of her own body. "I figured I could use an extra little black dress."

"Don't already have like twenty different black dresses?" Katy tilted her head sideways as she studied the black dress.

"You can never have too many dresses." Bulma said as she folded the black dress and placed it on the pile.

Katy smiled as she picked up a dark blue shirt. "I bought this for Gohan. Do you think he'll like it?"

"I'll think he'll appreciate the lingerie-set you bought more than that shirt." Bulma grinned at the young female warrior. "If only you could sent a picture to show him what he's missing."

"He'll be back soon." Katy's gazed move to the beautiful pink box that contained the lingerie she bought. The young woman chewed on her lip as she thought about her boyfriend. Images of his dark hair, his brown eyes… Every inch of his flesh…

Katy closed her eyes and willed the images away. This was not getting her anywhere. It was only filling her with longing for something she couldn't get.

"Oh Justin!" Bulma looked up to the two men who were standing a wise distance away from them. "Come over here. I bought this for you. You'll look so good." She held up a black tank top. "Come here. Try it on."

"Oh…" Justin hesitantly stepped closer. "It's looks great but I'm not sure if I can try it on right now."

"Don't be an idiot. Here. Try it on." Bulma held it out to him.

"I…"

"Now please." Bulma interrupted before fixing Justin with a strict glare.

Justin accepted the black tank top. "Yes madam." He stated before he walked to the hallway to change into the shirt. "It's no wonder she and Vegeta are a great match…" He muttered as he pulled off his baggy blue shirt and exchanged it with his black tank top. The young warrior pulled his long braided hair free from the black top and briefly glanced at his green locks. He was considered cutting it all off but he wanted to discuss it with Gohan first. The half-saiyan would be honest on whether it would suit him or not.

Once he returned, Bulma smiled appreciatively. "You look amazing in that top. I'd say keep it on." She winked at the young warrior and Justin blushed lightly.

The young alien moved his gaze away from Bulma only to catch Katy's eye. The young female warrior sent him a teasing grin before turning back to her clothing. Justin blew out a sigh. He couldn't wait for the other men to return so they could take some of the heat off of him. Bulma could take all her anger out on Vegeta and Katy would be preoccupied with Gohan. And Justin could focus on the people he wanted to focus on. Justin lowered his gaze to the ground and smiled as he thought about his plans for that day.

"Goku. I bought this for you." Chi-chi held up a spandex black top. "The other saiyans enjoy wearing these things and though I know you're more of a gi kind of guy, you might want to try it. See how you like it."

"Thank you, Chi-chi." Goku said, knowing that at times like these he had to be polite. The Saiyan warrior stepped closer and accepted the top. "So… You bought all these clothes at the mall today?"

"Yup." Bulma looked up. "Want to come along next time? You can at least be a gentleman and help carry the bags. Now that all the other men are out beasting around we could use some guys who know how to treat their ladies."

"Gohan's not beasting around." Katy muttered as she folded her new violet tank top.

"Well he's not here keeping his girlfriend company is he? He chose to go out with his friends." Bulma responded, somewhat coldly. He could see how much Katy missed him and she suddenly realized, too late, that this wasn't helping either. "Katy… I mean…"

"He didn't get to choose anything, you know?" Katy snarled in response. "Vegeta didn't really give him an option. He knew that. It's why he decided to go on his own accord. He would rather choose to do something he doesn't like than being forced into it. He's had enough experience with the latter."

"I know. I'm sorry." Bulma blew out a sigh. "I don't know what's wrong with me lately. I keep getting these anger explosions. I just suddenly feel very angry and then without warning I'm as happy as they can get and not even a minute later I'm sad again." Bulma lowered the dress she was holding. "Maybe I'm going crazy."

"I don't think you're going crazy." Chi-chi responded, a peculiar smile around her lips.

Bulma rounded on her. "You know what's going on? Don't tell me I caught some sort of sickness? I can't do sickness. I might die from even the slightest flue!"

"Hello?"

The others all turned their heads when Videl entered the room. Her dark eyes lit up when she noticed Justin but she didn't acknowledge him yet. "Hey everyone. I was let in by your father, Bulma, I hope that's okay."

"Sure." Bulma responded, shrugging. "It's their house to. What'cha doing here?"

"I came to pick up Justin." Videl smiled at the alien boy. "We were going to take a walk, right?"

"Right." Justin couldn't help but return the smile. He looked over at the others and he could already gauge the look on Katy's face. Oh, she was not going to let him live this one down. "I'll be going now. Bye!" He quickly turned to Videl and followed her out.

"Bye! Have fun!" Bulma called after them.

"But not too much fun!" Katy added, snickering when Justin sent them an annoyed glance over his shoulder. "Oh man. Gohan's going to love hearing about this."

"So what were you saying about me being sick?" Bulma said, turning to Chi-chi. She folded the last of her shirts and turned to Chi-chi, leaning on the table with her hand.

"How long has it been since the saiyans left?" Chi-chi asked while keeping her eyes on her newly acquired clothing. "A couple of months?" Katy and Bulma nodded in response. "And you've been getting morning sickness, throwing up, eating food you normally wouldn't eat and you have mood swings?"

Chi-chi turned to the others and chuckled when she received two very confused glances. "Let me give you a hint. I had the exact same symptoms about eighteen years ago… And then nine years later I had it again."

Katy widened her eyes slightly as she grasped the direness of the situation. "Oh…" She turned to look at Bulma. "You're not…. Are you?"

"What?" Bulma felt somewhat uncomfortable by the shocked glances she was receiving from the two other women. "I have no idea…." A cold feeling settled in her stomach. "Oh... No…." She shook her head. "I couldn't be… Besides… I haven't been with anybody since…. And we were safe! I mean…" Bulma shook her head as a cold trickle ran down her spine. "Oh Kami…"

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

"Vegeta? You here?" Gohan asked as he entered the room and looked around. He'd been walking around searching for his older comrades for about an hour now. The man was obviously hiding his powerlevel and Vegeta deflected any of Gohan's attempts to contact him through their mental bond. However, sadly for Vegeta, Gohan knew exactly where to find his comrade.

"Ah. There you are!" Gohan said once he noticed his older comrade curled up in his bed.

"Leave."

Gohan ignored Vegeta's snarl and approached the older warrior. "You told me to meet you after doing my chores." He stated while heading closer to the man. "So here I am."

"I changed my mind. Get out." Vegeta was lying in his bed, his arm draped over his eyes to shut out the world. The room was dark, all the lights turned off and the only light that occasionally slipped into the room was from a star passing nearby.

The full-blooded saiyan glared at the young warrior when Gohan fell down on his bed. The man briefly considered kicking the half-saiyan off but he knew this wasn't going to make Gohan go away.

"You're not kicking me out, are you?" Gohan said, making a sad face at the saiyan prince. Vegeta glared back at the young warrior and they kept this contest going for a few seconds until Vegeta was distracted by a massive yawn that he couldn't stifle. "What's happening?" Gohan asked as he shifted on the bed. "Why are you in bed?"

Vegeta was one of those people who continued to be active throughout the day. Going from training to doing chores to supervising his comrades' training to preparing dinner to hanging out with the others, Vegeta tended to be the first one up and the last one to go to bed after a long day. The man considered resting in general to be a waste of time so when Vegeta decided to curl up in bed, they knew something must be wrong.

"I just felt queasy." Vegeta said meekly.

"You felt queasy?" Gohan repeated, raising an eyebrow. "That's not a word I'd ever expect to hear you say."

Vegeta sat up and glared at the young warrior. "I thought you hated meditating?" He responded.

"I do."

"So why are you here, prompting me to meditate with you?"

Gohan shrugged. "You were planning on it so there's no getting out of it for me. Might as well get it over with, right?"

"Finally you're starting to understand your place in this squad." Vegeta said sweetly, smirking at the young warrior. "Well then. Let's go." He threw his legs over the edge of the bed and got up fully.

Gohan pushed off from the bed and followed the older warrior. "Are you sure you're alright? "

"Yes. I was a bit nauseous suddenly so I decided to lie down. I'm better now. You must have some sort of healing power. Or it might be the prospect of your upcoming suffering that is making me feel better."

"My upcoming suffering?" Gohan repeated as he raised an eyebrow at the smaller man. "We're going to meditate. What can be so bad about that?"

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

 **Ten years ago**

 _Whoosh._

 _Gohan arched his back when the whip lashed against his flesh. The young warrior's face contorted and he lowered his gaze to the table he was leaning on. Sweat dripped down his face and his breath came in short rasps._

 _A hand appeared in his vision; the fingers curled under his chin and pushed his face up. Hitora grinned at the young warrior. "You look awfully tired, kiddo. Did we hit the magic number just now?"_

 _Crimon lowered the whip he was holding. "Aw, don't tell me he's giving up. I can keep this up for hours." The man's lilac hands moved up the whip again. "Besides, I long for a nice and satisfying scream." He added cheerfully._

" _Forget it." Gohan groaned in response._

 _Hitora studied the young warrior in front of him with admiration. Only nine years old and so strong, not only in body but also in mind and willpower. They spent the last five years trying to break him only to fail miserably. They seemed to only make him stronger and stronger._

 _The whip lashed against Gohan's back again. Bloods spattered everywhere as the skin on Gohan's back tore open. The young warrior let out a soft whimper as he pushed his fingers against the metal table so harshly that dents started to form on the smooth surface. Hitora's dark eyes lowered to the table and he raised an eyebrow._

" _Where is your big mouth now, huh?" Crimon said from behind the half-saiyan. "I haven't heard you say anything witty in the last ten minutes. Maybe we should do this every day. I would certainly love to."_

 _Gohan lowered his gaze down to the table. The pain in his back was unbearable but nothing he never felt before. They'd whipped him so often by now… He just needed to be silent._

 _The door opened and headmaster headed inside. The man closed the door behind him before looking over at the young warrior. Headmaster studied the scenery in front of him before looking over at Crimon. "You're still going at it? How many have you done?"_

 _Crimon stood straight. "Were we supposed to keep track?" He asked. Hitora made a face at Crimon in response._

" _Guys." Headmaster complained. "Come on. Be professional for once." The man shook his head as he stepped closer to the half-saiyan. "We need to keep him alive."_

" _He's not going to die from a few puny lashes." Crimon was standing behind the half-saiyan in a flash and reached out to grab a chunk of the young warrior's hair. He roughly pulled the young warrior upwards. "Look. Tip top shape."_

 _Gohan let out an involuntary grown as he was forced to stand up. The pain in his back was multiplied by this sudden movement. Headmaster slowly shook his head. "I see." He muttered as he looked Gohan up and down. The half-saiyan looked far from okay. "You're done. Patch him back up."_

" _Meh. Spoil sport." Crimon complained as he released the half-saiyan. Hitora told the half-saiyan to place his hands on the table to steady his body as they treated the wounds on his back. Crimon opened the bottle with cleaning alcohol and considered the half-saiyan for a second. Hitora was holding a sterilized cloth and held out his hand to take over the cleaning alcohol when Crimon suddenly reached out and without warning poured the contents of the bottle over Gohan's wounded back._

 _The half-saiyan let out a scream of pain and scrambled up the table to get away from the agony. The young warrior whirled around and clenched his fists as he watched Hitora and Crimon high-five and congratulate each other on a gained scream. His back was still burning so painfully that he wanted to break down and cry but he refused to show them weakness. The half-saiyan jumped off the table and ran to the doorway, grabbing hold of the doorknob and twisting it. However, nothing happened and the half-saiyan savagely pulled and pushed on the door, realizing it was locked._

" _Honestly, Gohan, I've known you longer than today." Headmaster said as he studied the half-saiyan's damaged back. "Of course I locked the door. Now come back here."_

 _Gohan turned around to face the three warriors. "Let me go. You've had your fun."_

 _Crimon laughed cheerfully. "Don't think it's over just yet. After your numerous escape attempts we decided that it is time to really show you how bad an idea it is to disobey us. We're just getting started."_

 _The half-saiyan looked around in the windowless room. This room was the room that appeared in many of his nightmares. The sound-proofed room that the specialists took the half-saiyan to in order to punish and torture him. Nobody would hear his screams in here. Nobody ever did._

 _When Crimon and Hitora took him here earlier today they had to force him inside. He was not going in that easily. However, they were still stronger than he was and that showed when they forcefully shoved him inside and locked the door behind them._

" _For now, we need to treat your wounds." Headmaster said in a stern voice. "I'll do it. Crimon, Hitora, stand down."_

 _The two specialists made annoyed faces but they placed the cleaning alcohol and the cloths on the table and took a few paces back. Headmaster took a seat on a chair and grabbed the cloth. "Come on, Gohan. I won't hurt you more than the necessary pain you'll experience due to the cleaning of the wounds."_

 _Gohan hesitated as he looked at the headmaster. He didn't trust these men any further than he could throw them… He wasn't even strong enough to catch them in order to throw them... Crimon crossed his arms over each other. "It's either that or bleeding to death, kiddo."_

 _Headmaster waved him over and the half-saiyan hesitantly headed back to the table. Pushing Gohan's hair aside, Headmaster got to work on cleaning the young warrior's back and Gohan noticed the man was actually trying not to hurt him too badly. The half-saiyan breathed in and out slowly, trying not to wince every time he felt a sting of burning in his back._

" _You guys took it way too far." Headmaster complained as he surveyed Gohan's wounds. "Honestly, you can explain all this to Vegeta."_

" _This is nothing compared to what Vegeta will do to the brat." Crimon responded immediately. "Trust me, kiddo." He addressed to Gohan. "Vegeta's going to rip you apart if you try to even look in the wrong direction. If you can't take this kind of pain you might as well give up right now."_

 _The half-saiyan looked up and both Crimon and Hitora were surprised by the fire in the half-saiyan's eyes. "Do what you want with me." The young warrior stated in a dangerously low voice. "It will only make me stronger and once I killed those saiyans I might just come for you too."_

 _Headmaster froze for a moment, surprised by Gohan's statement, but then continued to clean the half-saiyan's wounds. "Don't say such reckless things, Gohan. You can't even defeat us. What makes you think you can defeat those saiyans?"_

" _I will… One day…" Gohan muttered as he lowered his gaze to the table. He clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white. "One day…"_

GET OUT

Gohan gasped when he finally managed to throw Vegeta out of his mind. The young warrior breathed heavily as he got up and took a few heavy steps.

Vegeta got up from his position on the ground. Gohan's last mental attack had been so powerful it had literally thrown Vegeta off his feet. The man headed to the half-saiyan and sent the young warrior a smirk. "Oh, how I love childhood memories." He teased.

Gohan closed his eyes as he shook his head. "Shut up." He muttered.

"Your murderous attitude towards us is adorable. Tell me, how is it going with your plans to kill us, huh? Any new developments I should know about?" Vegeta continued mercilessly. As they all knew, the saiyans were still very much alive. Gohan's desire to kill them was never fulfilled. He failed in doing what he wanted to do for many years. He might not want to kill them anymore but he was still aware of how it felt to hate the saiyans and it would always remain a touchy subject for the half-saiyan and a fun way for the saiyans to put Gohan back in his place.

"You're such a jerk." Gohan muttered as he leaned on the table with both hands.

The two saiyans were still in their first meditating session. Gohan now understood why Vegeta was so excited about the prospect of meditating with the young warrior. The saiyan prince decided that Gohan could not properly defend his own mind so he would train the young warrior to fend off hostile attacks. As a personal note, Vegeta tended to go straight for distant memories whenever he did get through Gohan's defences. His favourites were the negative memories, flashbacks that involved Gohan getting punished or having arguments with the specialists.

"Let's get back to it." Vegeta said before sitting down on the ground again.

Gohan slowly shook his head. "Can we stop for now? Continue tomorrow?" He suggested.

"No." Vegeta responded. "I crawled into your mind without even breaking out into a sweat. You're so easy to penetrate it is embarrassing. If Frieza decides to play his mind tricks on you we're all fucked."

"We still have time…" Gohan tried weakly. He was aware of his weak mental boundaries. He also knew the gaps in his mental defences were mainly due to his lack of training his mind and he was smart enough to realize that these training sessions were really helping him train his mind. However, he was tiring out quickly. Defending his mind was the most difficult and exhausting training, especially when encountering such a strong mind as Vegeta's.

"Half-breed." Vegeta said, giving the young warrior a stern stare. "Sit down."

"Alright." Gohan said meekly as he turned back to Vegeta. While he watched the young warrior approach in order to sit down, Vegeta realized that Gohan was relatively obedient lately. Of course, the young warrior sported a big mouth and would always retaliate or put up a brief fight, but that was normal; that's just how Gohan was. Aside from these bratty moments, Gohan was almost back to how he was before he came of age. He finally really gave up on taking over the squad.

"Why didn't you kill us when you had the chance?" Vegeta asked suddenly, looking up at the young warrior. The hatred Vegeta could feel during his search through Gohan's memories shocked Vegeta. He never realized how much negativity Gohan was feeling towards his comrades and how strong these feelings really were. However, he also knew that Gohan was actually stronger than them right now and Gohan surpassed the others quite some time ago. They were all aware that Gohan could actually kill them.

Gohan met his eyes. The warrior did not even seem surprised by the question, not after the flashback they both just experienced. The problem was that Gohan wasn't even sure why he never killed his comrades. "I never got to it." He responded casually.

"Never got to it?" Vegeta's eyes held onto Gohan's gaze.

"Hmm…" A hint of a smile appeared on Gohan's face. "Been kinda busy running away from the strongest lizard in the universe and that whole survival thing, you know."

"Sounds like a drag." Vegeta responded drily.

"I know right." Gohan blew out a sigh as he placed his hands on the ground behind him and leaned back.

Vegeta frowned in response to Gohan's suddenly relaxed composure. "Who told you our training session is over?"

"I thought we were chatting." Gohan responded, raising an eyebrow.

"Chatting time is over. We have a lot of work. Get your lazy ass back in meditation mode." Vegeta snarled as he glared at the young warrior.

Gohan opened and closed his mouth before sitting up straighter. "You initiated it." He muttered as he closed his eyes.

"And I'm ending it too." Vegeta growled in response. "Though I do understand your hesitance to continue our session, seeing as I'm wiping the floor with your brain."

"It's a welcome break from the original tradition; me wiping the floor with your butt." Gohan muttered without realizing what he did. The half-saiyan opened his eyes and met Vegeta's shocked gaze. The two were silent for a moment in their mutual shock of Gohan's insubordination.

Suddenly, Vegeta's gaze darkened with such intensity that Gohan instantly leaned back. The half-saiyan opened his mouth to reply but Vegeta got there first. "You're going to regret that." He hissed before he launched at the half-saiyan.

Gohan scrambled up into a standing positon and dodged Vegeta's first attack before turning swiftly and running away. The half-saiyan rushed through the doorway, pushing Turles and Raditz aside in his hurry to get away from the livid full-blooded saiyan.

"Get back here, you runt!" Vegeta screamed as he almost flew after the young warrior.

Turles and Raditz exchanged worried glances as they listened to the sounds of the two saiyans messing around in the ship, throwing objects around in their little game of catch. Raditz blew out a sigh and sent his younger brother a confused glance when Turles chuckled.

Turles shrugged when he noticed his brother's expression. "This feels just like the good old days."

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

 **I hope you liked it! Please review and let me know what you think!**

 **Until next time!**

 **Xj9**


	7. Chapter 7: Getting in Trouble Once Again

**Thanks for the reviews!**

 **Previously on A Half-breed's Life 3:**

" _We know what's best, half-breed!" Nappa clapped him on the back cheerfully._

 _Gohan made a face. "Could you stop calling me that?"_

" _Oh come on, you've never had any problems with the nickname."_

" _Yes I did." Gohan complained. "I hate it. Why can't you call me by my real name?"_

" _If it really bothers you that much then why don't you fight for it?" Nappa suggested._

" _Fight for it?" Gohan grabbed the cloth again and squeezed the water out of it. He figured he might as well continue his work while they conversed._

" _Yeah. Challenge one of us. If you win, they have to call you by your real name. If they win, you have to do something for them. It's common for young saiyans to challenge their elders for something they want."_

 _Gohan raised both his eyebrows. "I didn't know I could do that."_

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

 _The full-blooded warrior studied the half-saiyan for a moment before turning to the young warrior fully. The man's tail lashed behind him and followed a similar pattern to Gohan's tail._

 _Gohan's tail gave a brief push upwards. Turles laughed in response, shaking his head afterwards. "Get lost, kid." He said, waving the young warrior away._

 _Gohan repeated the movement, the tip of his tail pointing upwards to the ceiling. Turles's smile disappeared from his face. "Maybe I should call Vegeta and let him help me show you what happens to children who make too dominant tail gestures for their own good."_

" _Can't handle me on your own?" Gohan responded, smirking at the man._

 _Turles eyed Gohan's tail. "Half-breed…"_

" _I want you to stop calling me that." Gohan interrupted. "I challenge you for my name. If I win, you will call me by my real name."_

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

" _So what were you saying about me being sick?" Bulma said, turning to Chi-chi. She folded the last of her shirts and turned to Chi-chi, leaning on the table with her hand._

" _How long has it been since the saiyans left?" Chi-chi asked while keeping her eyes on her newly acquired clothing. "A couple of months?" Katy and Bulma nodded in response. "And you've been getting morning sickness, throwing up, eating food you normally wouldn't eat and you have mood swings?"_

 _Chi-chi turned to the others and chuckled when she received two very confused glances. "Let me give you a hint. I had the exact same symptoms about eighteen years ago… And then nine years later I had it again."_

 _Katy widened her eyes slightly as she grasped the direness of the situation. "Oh…" She turned to look at Bulma. "You're not…. Are you?"_

" _What?" Bulma felt somewhat uncomfortable by the shocked glances she was receiving from the two other women. "I have no idea…." A cold feeling settled in her stomach. "Oh... No…." She shook her head. "I couldn't be… Besides… I haven't been with anybody since…. And we were safe! I mean…" Bulma shook her head as a wary trickle ran down her spine. "Oh Kami…"_

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

 _Gohan blew out a sigh. "Vegeta. I'm not going to try to overthrow you. Not for a while at least." He responded in a tired voice. "I'm not ready to lead this squad yet, I know that now."_

 _Vegeta crossed his arms over each other. "However, you never really subjected to my authority either. As long as you don't give in to my power I will continue to assume you're opting for the leader position."_

" _But I did subject to your leadership!" Gohan snarled as he jumped up._

" _No you didn't!"_

" _Yes I did!" Gohan snarled as he stepped closer. "Don't you get it, Vegeta? You won!" The half-saiyan stopped right in front of the cage and he spread his arms. "You won the moment you guys rescued me from the dungeon. You took me in because you wanted a perfect little soldier to help you defeat Frieza and here I am; a super saiyan on the run from the strongest warrior alive. Where am I going to go without you guys? I have to fight him now because he'll kill me otherwise. And I can't face him without you. I'm officially stuck and you guys are stuck here with me."_

 **Moving on to the next chapter!**

 **Chapter 7. Getting in Trouble Once Again.**

Gohan blew out a sigh as he strolled down the hallway of the ship. He knew he could probably do a ton of things. He could go train his muscles. He could do some reading. He could research space ships or mechanics. He just didn't feel like it. He didn't feel like doing anything.

The young warrior made a face as he headed down the hallway. What to do…. Gohan glanced sideways when he heard Vegeta's voice. Better stay out of that man's way. Vegeta had the tendency to notice it whenever Gohan wasn't being useful and the prince could always think of a few chores that needed to be done. As a young teenager Gohan quickly learned that even uttering the idea of being bored to Vegeta was relatively suicidal and always followed by either a lot of harsh training or an endless list of chores.

Gohan looked up when he noticed Nappa's scent. Same story there. No fun to be found when Nappa is lecturing how important Gohan's youth is and that being bored is a waste of time. As if Gohan didn't know that already.

Turles was training in the training room. Keeping a safe distance from that uncle was also advisable since Gohan wasn't planning on being drawn into a spar.

The young warrior wandered into the kitchen, following his nose more than his feelings of boredom. Raditz was the one who had to cook today and the man often did everything he could to make the meal delicious.

"Morning Raditz." Gohan said as he headed towards his uncle.

"Morning, kiddo." Raditz greeted in response. The man turned and pushed a full spoon in Gohan's direction. The young warrior raised an eyebrow but opened his mouth to let the spoon in.

Raditz visibly changed hismind and pulled the spoon back, earning a questioning glance from the young warrior. The uncle ignored this and gently blew on the liquid on the spoon to cool it down a bit before pushing it towards Gohan again. This time, Gohan opened his mouth more eagerly and he allowed Raditz to feed him the soup.

Gohan let the liquid swirl in his mouth for a moment to let all his taste buds gain the full experience of the food before swallowing it. "Oh it's good." He said as he leaned in to glance at the soup.

"One day." Raditz stated. "I will be a better cook than Turles."

"Definitely." Gohan grinned, thinking it would take Raditz a lot of practicing before he would get anywhere near Turles's culinary skills, but Raditz could dream.

"Don't you have anything to do?" Raditz guessed as he turned back to preparing supper.

"Oh, I've got loads to do. I'm just taking a break from all my work." Gohan responded quickly. Raditz glanced sideways to give Gohan a look only Raditz could give; namely the 'who-are-you-trying-to-fool' look. Gohan grinned innocently. "Okay. I'm a bit bored." He stated in response.

"Don't let Vegeta hear it." Raditz winked at the young warrior and Gohan gave a smile. Yet another reason why Gohan always went to Raditz whenever he was bored; Raditz was the only adult who definitely wouldn't rat him out to Vegeta.

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

 **Several hours later…**

The saiyan squad was gathered in the training room. They were all hyped and ready for a fight. In order to drive out his boredom, Gohan helped Raditz prepare supper. After enjoying their food, the saiyan squad decided to have a collective spar.

Vegeta frowned as he studied the young warrior. "Is that your max?"

"Yeah, why?" Gohan responded a little too quickly.

"Your power level seems lower than it was yesterday which doesn't make any sense." Vegeta crossed his arms over each other. "You should have progressed by now or at least remained on the same level."

"Maybe you progressed more than me and thus I feel weaker in comparison to your strength." Gohan suggested, shrugging. "Can we move on?"

Vegeta pursed his lips and held Gohan's gaze for a moment. Not even ten seconds later Gohan blew out a sigh. "How do you do that?" Gohan asked, sending Vegeta an amazed glance.

The Saiyan prince showed a smug glance as he uncrossed his arms. "I just know my baby boy very well." He teased in response. The man ignored the annoyed glance he received from the half-saiyan after this. "Power up to your max, brat."

Gohan took a deep breath and focused his energy in order to power up. The half-saiyan opened his eyes. "Done." He said simply. Vegeta narrowed his eyes and his tail lashed out, moving in a threatening message. "Okay. Okay." Gohan said quickly. He pushed his energy-level all the way to his max. "I'm there."

"Finally." Vegeta decided to leave his tail untangled for now so he could remind Gohan of Vegeta's superior position. "I honestly don't know why you even try to hold out on me. It's such a waste of time."

Gohan waited for Vegeta to turn away from him before making a sour face at the full-blooded saiyan. Turles, noticing Gohan's expression, snickered but immediately made a straight face when Vegeta looked at him. The saiyan prince gave Turles a suspicious glance but decided to ignore it and moved on with his instructions.

After taking the others through their training routine for the day, Vegeta told his subordinates to start the training. It was going to be a normal day. No new routines. No new moves to learn. They were taking it easy… Well… They were still going to beat each other senseless but at least they would do what they were used to doing.

"Half-breed." Vegeta inclined his head to the refreshment table. "Follow me."

Gohan made a face as he realized that he was probably in trouble. Vegeta only allowed training to be delayed for important matters. The young warrior followed his comrade until they were standing near the refreshment table. One glance sideways made Gohan realize that their comrades were already focused on training.

Vegeta waited for Gohan to reach him. Once the young warrior was close enough Vegeta grabbed Gohan's shoulder. Before Gohan could react Vegeta's leg moved up and his lower leg pushed against the indent at the back of Gohan's knee. Gohan's leg collapsed under him and the young warrior was forced to kneel on the ground.

The Saiyan prince grabbed Gohan's hair and roughly forced the young warrior to tilt his face upwards. "Do not disobey me again, do you understand me?" He snarled into the young warrior's surprised face.

Gohan pressed his lips together. "I understand." He responded.

"Good." Vegeta pushed the young warrior forwards so that Gohan landed on his hands and knees. The man gave a growl as he headed for their comrades in order to join the spar.

Gohan blew out a sigh as he got up. From the day they started this trip, Vegeta seemed to be on a mission to put Gohan down. Back on planet Earth, Gohan attempted to become the leader of their squad by challenging Vegeta to a fight. Vegeta won and ever since then Vegeta continued to remind the young warrior of his position in the squad. Several days ago, Gohan and Vegeta had an argument in which Gohan explained that he did actually consider Vegeta as his leader. Gohan was not going to try to overthrow Vegeta any time soon.

The half-saiyan hoped that after this Vegeta would stop torturing the half-saiyan but this hope was destroyed quickly. Vegeta actually became even stricter. It seemed like he was making sure that Gohan really knew his place, even after Gohan voiced it.

Gohan was tolerating it for now, which was even more difficult since Gohan was stronger than Vegeta, and it was easy for Gohan to fight the man off. He was biding his time, hoping the man would give up on his new mission to teach Gohan his place.

However, as Gohan flew up to the others he noticed the hostile expression on Vegeta's face and he realized that it would be a long time before Vegeta would forget about this situation.

 ****** The Following Day ******

"We're only going in to get some food and then we're out of there again." Vegeta stated as his gaze moved to his comrades. "You know the plan. Raditz watches the ship. Nappa goes for the clothing. Turles, water. Half-breed and I will head for food. Act normal. We're not the wanted Saiyan team at all. We're just passing by. And we're alone and not in a team. So we're not interesting at all. Got it?"

The others nodded as one man. They all knew the plan and they were aware of the risks but they needed to stock up on their food and water or they wouldn't stand a chance when they were really attacked.

Their ship landed only a couple of minutes ago but the saiyans could not wait to lift off again. This haste was not generated by their fear of Frieza. They were dying to fight him. However, they were not ready yet. They needed more time. Therefore, avoidance was the best option for now.

Gohan could not help but feel uncomfortable as he walked down the busy street. They chose the trading planet for a reason; try to find a saiyan in a massive crowd of all different kinds of aliens. There were so many people around that Gohan was almost constantly bumping into people. There was just too little space to walk properly, especially with the flying vehicles zooming just above their heads.

As he walked, Gohan was reminded of the hectic environment in planet Earth's large cities. If only the technology on earth wasn't so primitive, they could have made the vehicles fly above walking crowd rather than have the two separate types of travellers try to coexist and expect not to have accidents.

Then again, Gohan constantly had to remind himself that he could not just jump up and fly away if he didn't want to bump into one of those vehicles zooming passed above him. The young warrior wasn't in a need to fly though. He was making his way to the food market. They agreed Turles would try to hunt down some food in one of the closest forests while Gohan and Vegeta would go out to buy food that could not be hunted down.

The half-saiyan blew out a sigh. It was actually quite nice to be alone for a while. Back on the ship, he basically spent all day with at least one of his comrades. It wasn't like he hated them, and he would hate to be alone all day, but sometimes he just felt like being alone.

It didn't take Gohan long to find several different types of fruits and vegetables. Carrying several bags filled with goods, Gohan was now studying a strange new type of vegetable he had never seen before and silently wondering whether or not to buy it. For all he knew the vegetable could be lethal to them… Then again, Vegeta kept maintaining that there was nothing that could be poisonous to Saiyans, at least not enough to kill them. And even if there was something that was poisonous to them, their body would immediately notice the hostility and throw it out. He still wasn't sure whether to believe Vegeta or not.

Gohan decided not to buy them. He ignored the shopkeeper who was calling the prices of the different vegetables at him. Something else caught his attention. The half-saiyan silently cursed himself and the others for not realizing that every planet would probably contain bounty hunters.

"Doing some shopping?" A girl next to him glanced up at him. The half-saiyan glanced at her dark complexion and bright green eyes. She was pretty. Didn't even hold a candle to Katy though.

Gohan decided to play along and he shrugged. "Yep." He responded cheerfully. "My friends have quite an appetite so I'm stocking up." He was pretending that he didn't notice the people sneaking around behind him.

"You sound like someone who always has to do the groceries." The young woman smiled at him.

"It's sad but true." Gohan said in a dramatic tone as he reached out and grabbed a fruit he recognized. He gave it a brief overview and tossed it in the bag.

The change in atmosphere was sudden. People moved out of the way almost on instinct. Civilians who probably never even experienced a bad or dangerous situation could now behave accordingly and get themselves out of harm's way so easily. Gohan heard the scared gasp from the woman he was just talking to. He didn't know why but he felt protective over this stranger.

"Run." Gohan ordered as he turned away from her to face the danger. He was confronted with at least a dozen warriors, all dressed in the armour he knew all too well. As he ran his eyes over the warriors he could swear he even recognized a couple of them. Vaguely.

"Why would I?" A whisper right behind him made Gohan realize he just made a colossal error in judgement. A sharp pain occurred in his neck and everything went black.

 ****** Meanwhile ******

"Finally." Vegeta growled as he watched Raditz walk closer.

"Am I the last one?" Raditz asked once he was close enough to speak to Vegeta. The man was standing near the opening of their ship. The door was still open. Raditz could feel that most of the others were inside.

Vegeta shook his head. "Half-breed is still out there." He responded in an annoyed tone. "Stupid brat is incapable of listening to rules."

"He probably just got lost." Raditz said, shrugging. "Or he lost track of the time. We'll wait a bit." He said as he entered the ship.

"I'll decide that." Vegeta responded as he followed Raditz inside. "Maybe we should just leave. Let the brat feel the consequences of disobeying my rules."

Turles and Nappa exchanged glances when they heard Vegeta's last sentence. They arrived well within the time they agreed on and they already put away and cleaned up everything they retrieved from the planet by now.

"About that." Turles stated boldly as he pushed away from the counter he was leaning against and approached Vegeta. "Do you think you could lay off the boy for a while?"

Vegeta fixed Turles with a cold stare. "And why would I do that?"

Turles was not fazed by Vegeta's glares at all. He had been living with Vegeta since he was five years old. There was practically nothing Vegeta could do to put Turles off. "The kid has been doing exactly what you say lately. Why not cut him some slack? He's not interested in your position. Get the message."

"Oh really?" Vegeta crossed his arms over each other as he approached the younger soldier. "Turles, do you remember when you tried to challenge me?"

"Vaguely." Turles responded neutrally. He did actually remember it quite well. Vegeta and Turles got into an argument and Turles decided that he could lead the squad better than the saiyan prince.

"You remember what I did after your little mental breakdown?" Vegeta hissed as he stepped closer to the younger warrior.

Turles remembered that too. After Turles lost their match, Vegeta continued to beat the younger warrior in order to teach him a lesson. Even after that day Vegeta easily smacked Turles around for the smallest offences. It was a tensed month.

"Tell me, Turles. Did you ever try to challenge me again?" Vegeta continued when Turles just stared at him. "No, you didn't. And you can keep telling yourself that the war happened, and half-breed happened and this Frieza trouble happened but half-breed himself managed to challenge me so why didn't you?" Vegeta didn't even wait for Turles's answer. "Because I scared you away from it. For now. And I'm going to do the same with the brat."

Vegeta turned away from Turles and looked at Raditz. "Find your nephew and bring him back to me." He ordered. Raditz nodded and quickly turned to leave the ship.

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

Gohan eyed his surroundings and took a deep breath as he realized what happened. Man, he was in trouble now. The cell wasn't anything special. He'd seen the bars before and the material could easily be broken by someone like the half-saiyan. That was probably why they put those glowing bonds on his wrists. The young warrior lowered his gaze to his arms, staring at the blue bonds. They were still glowing, which meant they were continuously zapping his energy from his body. That's probably why he couldn't focus his energy in order to power up.

This also prevented him from breaking the chains around his ankles and wrists. Thin black strings were the only objects attaching Gohan to the wall and floor but they were strong. He could not break them. The young warrior was now waiting patiently for someone to come see him. They would. He knew they would.

He remembered what happened before he got caught. He was attacked and he was stupid enough to assume the cute woman who was standing next to him was not a soldier. Stupid. He promised himself he would never make such a mistake again.

So who could have caught him and why? Probably bounty hunters. They would bring him straight to Frieza, collect the bounty just for Gohan, and be on their way. Or they might try to lure the saiyans to Gohan and try to catch them too. That would be a mistake the Saiyans would enjoy to make them suffer for. Last option, small chance of that happening, was that they would offer Gohan a deal. Help them defeat Frieza? Team up? Probably not happening.

The young warrior looked up when he heard a door opening. He couldn't see the door from here. However, he could see the person who came in once he or she entered the hallway that passed through the area of the cells.

Gohan couldn't help but be surprised when he recognized the person who was approaching his cage. The half-saiyan could feel his own mouth falling open and he suddenly couldn't remember how to close it. The black mocking eyes, the usually long purple hair that was now cut short and the grin on the man's face were all too familiar to him.

"Hey kiddo!" The man greeted as he entered the cage. He was accompanied by the same woman who was the reason for Gohan's imprisonment. "Remember me?"

"I prefer not to." Gohan responded, leaning his head back. Himona was the bully in Gohan's kid years. During Gohan's stay at camp, Himona was the reason Gohan got picked on, beaten up, constantly humiliated and secluded from the group.

"Got yourself in real trouble now ey?" Himona sat down opposite the half-saiyan but far enough to stay out of reach. "The entire universe is looking for you." The man studied the young warrior.

"And you caught me." Gohan responded, his eyes moving up to meet the green eyes of the woman. She sent him a smile in response.

"Yeah." Himona caught Gohan's glance to the female soldier. "One of the strongest warriors in the universe taken down by a woman." He stated mockingly. "Of course these types of low tactics are the ones to be used against people like you. If you can't beat them, outsmart them."

Gohan's eyes focused on the key the woman was holding before moving to Himona. "So what are you doing here?"

The man shrugged. "They took me along because I knew you. I am in this cage right now because I wanted to see you." He stated casually. "Before we deliver you to Frieza." The man placed his hands behind him and leaned on them. "When you first escaped from the warzone they spread the rumour that you died on the battlefield." He said, studying Gohan's face for a reaction. "I visited the camp not long after the war to pick up a cadet. You should have seen the faces of the specialists when I showed them the news of your decease." Himona chuckled to himself. "I could have sworn Crimon was actually going to cry. Serves them right for picking favourites. "

Gohan kept his expression neutral as he listened to Himona's story but on the inside he suddenly went cold. He never realized what the news of Gohan's supposed death would do to the specialists. He didn't even consider the specialists at all and he felt bad for it. He did contact one of his closer friends Boris to show that he was actually alive but he never called the specialists. Why not? They were his mentors. They taught him everything he knew. Okay, they weren't always nice to him but they were his family for several years.

Himona tilted his head sideways. "It's actually sad we cannot deliver you to Frieza personally." He stated. "I would have loved to get that honour but no, we're not that lucky." He made a face as he sat up again. "The Ginyu Force is on their way to pick you up. They said they're _very_ excited to see you."

Especially with these ki-bonds on, Gohan thought miserably as he glanced down to the golden bonds around his wrists. "I'm partially hoping that your comrades will try to rescue you so that we can deliver the entire package to the Ginyu Force. I doubt that you're travelling by yourself. They must be near." Himona continued. "My boss doesn't want to take the risk of losing you though so we're not going to look for them ourselves. They'll have to come to us."

Himona studied the half-saiyan before looking up at his comrade. "Do you want to have some fun with him before we hand him over? Too good a specimen to pass up, isn't he?"

Gohan raised an eyebrow as he looked from Himona to the female warrior. She met his eyes and seemed to consider the offer but then shook her head. "Meh. I saw his age. He's barely in his twenties. Officially a turn off." She stated, shaking her head. He was way too young for her.

Himona shrugged before turning to the half-saiyan again. "Too bad for you. She's a good fuck." He stated casually. The female soldier was with him in a flash and she smacked him over the head harshly. "What!?" Himona rubbed over his head as he looked up at her. "It's true!"

She rolled her bright green eyes. "You're hopeless." She stated before heading to the entrance of the cell. "Come on. We're leaving." She waited near the entrance for him.

Himona got up and exchanged glances with the half-saiyan. "Women, man. Nothing we can do against them." He stated cheerfully before he walked to the female soldier. She motioned for Himona to leave the cage and the man meekly did.

Gohan watched as they closed the cage. Himona wrapped his arm around the female soldier, which she allowed, and they left the room together. The half-saiyan lowered his gaze as he thought about Katy. The young warrior thought about her bright pink eyes. The eyes he could get lost in. He thought about her hair, sticking against her face whenever she was sweating. Her voice; whispering in his ear. Her strong body pressed up against his.

The half-saiyan shook his head. This was no time for such thoughts. He needed to get out of here first. The young warrior lowered his gaze as he thought about his conversation with Himona. So the Ginyu Force couldn't wait to see him huh? Well he couldn't wait to see them either. They thought he would still be too weak to fight them but Gohan was convinced of the opposite. He might not be strong enough to defeat Frieza yet but he was definitely strong enough to defeat the Ginyu Force. However, they might become a problem if they fought him all at once. He might be stronger but strength would only get him so far. Tactics and skill were important as well and the Ginyu Force excelled in fighting as a group. They were a well-oiled machine and could work together as well as the Saiyan squad. No, that might be a problem.

Not long after Himona's visit Gohan was disturbed once more. He looked up to see a group of soldiers coming closer. The soldiers were all dressed in different versions of the uniform of Frieza's army. They were normal soldiers, low in status and used for the dirty work, like picking up a highly dangerous prisoner from the cells. Gohan didn't resist as they grabbed him, forced him to stand up and follow them.

The half-saiyan prepared to study his surroundings and make sure to remember the way to wherever they were taking him but before they left the dungeon they made him stop and they forced a blindfold on him. The young warrior huffed in annoyance. Fine, he could play like this too.

As they walked Gohan counted the turns they made. Left, left, right, left and one final right. The dungeon was close to the place they were going to. The half-saiyan then felt a disturbance in the floor and he made a face. Elevator. Okay. It was on an entirely different floor. He hoped the vibrations in the elevator could tell him on which floor they were but the ride was too smooth. He couldn't make out anything and suddenly the doors opened and they left. Left, right.

The half-saiyan was pushed onto his knees and the blindfold was pulled from his face. Gohan's eyes moved around to create a picture of what was happening around him. The half-saiyan looked up when he heard a familiar voice.

"I believe you. It's really him."

Gohan's eyes automatically moved to where the sound was coming from and a chill ran down his spine when his eyes met Frieza's eyes. The young warrior could feel his throat turn dry instantly. Frieza seemed amused by Gohan's shocked face. The half-saiyan didn't want to show the tyrant how shocked he was but he couldn't help it. It all became way too real now that he saw Frieza's actual face, heard his real voice.

Back in the dungeon, Gohan could tell himself that he wasn't going to meet Frieza just yet. He could tell himself that he could still get away. All was not lost just yet. However, now that he could see the lights in Frieza's eyes Gohan realized that he was caught.

"It's good to see you again little saiyan." Frieza drawled as he studied the young warrior. "Then again, you're not so little anymore, are you? Little Saiyan all grown up."

Gohan was still speechless. Honestly, what was he going to say? He was in their hands. The ki-bonds kept him from powering up. "The Ginyu Force is on their way to pick you up." Frieza continued. "I can't wait to have you back under my wing safe and sound. Until then little monkey."

The screen turned black and a silence fell in the room. Gohan lowered his gaze to the ground as a cold dreading feeling settled in his stomach. He didn't want to go. He didn't want to go back to that ship. To that world. What would Frieza do to him? Torture him? Kill him? Frieza didn't say anything about killing him. Besides, if Frieza just wanted Gohan dead the tyrant could have ordered these people to kill him… Then again, Frieza might want to do the honours himself…

"Whatever you did, kiddo." A man Gohan didn't even know appeared in the half-saiyan's vision. "You just earned me a lot of money." The man grinned excitedly.

Gohan met his eyes and managed to give the man a cold glance. "Your welcome." He stated as calmly as he could. He didn't feel calm at all but these people didn't have to know that.

"But…" A female voice drew their attention and Gohan glanced sideways. This person was definitely not a regular soldier. "this can't be the person Frieza is looking for." She wasn't wearing the same armour as the other soldiers. Her clothes were obviously more expensive material. The form-fitting uniform was combined with an almost silver-looking armour. She approached the half-saiyan. "He's a child." She looked over at the man in front of Gohan.

The man shrugged as he studied the half-saiyan. "Some start young." He stated. "Not our problem."

The female warrior frowned as she turned to the man fully. "You're going to hand over a child to Frieza? For money?"

Before the man could answer, Gohan cut in. "I'm not a child." He snarled. Why did everyone keeping saying that? It was already annoying enough coming from his comrades.

"See. The bastard said it himself." The man smiled at the female soldier. She only huffed before heading to the doorway. The man glanced down at Gohan again. "Bring him back to the dungeon. Feed him something good for getting my wife off my back." He ordered.

Gohan raised an eyebrow. So that's why she could mouth off at him like that. Any other soldier wouldn't have dared to do something like that. The blindfold was wrapped around his head again and the young warrior was forced to stand up. On the way back to the dungeon, Gohan managed to keep track of their movements. Once he was sitting in his cell he mentally created a map of his route to what he could only describe as the control room.

A chill ran through his body as he thought about Frieza's cold eyes. The half-saiyan shook his head. Don't think about that now. It was not the time. He needed to focus. He needed to get out of here.

The half-saiyan blinked when a tremor ran through the ship. He looked up and silently wondered what could be landing on the ship now. Suddenly, another chill ran down his spine. Oh no, it couldn't be the Ginyu Force already? Were they that fast?

Gohan shook his head. No it was too early. He listened silently. Were footsteps already coming closer to the dungeon? Gohan made a worried face when he actually heard something. Was he just imagining this? Or not?

The half-saiyan jolted visibly when the door to the dungeon was opened. The young warrior shook his head as he heard footsteps approaching his cell and shadows danced almost mockingly just far away enough to make it impossible for the half-saiyan to determine their shapes.

It was too late. Gohan realized that now. This time there was no getting away. This time he would not be that lucky.

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

 **Please review and let me know what you think!**

 **Until next time!**


	8. Chapter 8: One Plan Gone Wrong

**Previously on A Half-breed's Life 3:**

 _Gohan blew out a sigh. "Vegeta. I'm not going to try to overthrow you. Not for a while at least." He responded in a tired voice. "I'm not ready to lead this squad yet, I know that now."_

 _Vegeta crossed his arms over each other. "However, you never really subjected to my authority either. As long as you don't give in to my power I will continue to assume you're opting for the leader position."_

" _But I did subject to your leadership!" Gohan snarled as he jumped up._

" _No you didn't!"_

" _Yes I did!" Gohan snarled as he stepped closer. "Don't you get it, Vegeta? You won!" The half-saiyan stopped right in front of the cage and he spread his arms. "You won the moment you guys rescued me from the dungeon. You took me in because you wanted a perfect little soldier to help you defeat Frieza and here I am; a super saiyan on the run from the strongest warrior alive. Where am I going to go without you guys? I have to fight him now because he'll kill me otherwise. And I can't face him without you. I'm officially stuck and you guys are stuck here with me."_

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

" _We're only going in to get some food and then we're out of there again." Vegeta stated as his gaze moved to his comrades. "You know the plan. Raditz watches the ship. Nappa goes for the clothing. Turles, water. Half-breed and I will head for food. Act normal. We're not the wanted Saiyan team at all. We're just passing by. And we're alone and not in a team. So we're not interesting at all. Got it?"_  
 _  
_ ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

 _The change in atmosphere was sudden. People moved out of the way almost on instinct. Civilians who probably never even experienced a bad or dangerous situation could now behave accordingly and get themselves out of harm's way so easily. Gohan heard the scared gasp from the woman he was just talking to. He didn't know why but he felt protective over this stranger._

" _Run." Gohan ordered as he turned away from her to face the danger. He was confronted with at least a dozen warriors, all dressed in the armour he knew all too well. As he ran his eyes over the warriors he could swear he even recognized a couple of them. Vaguely._

" _Why would I?" A whisper right behind him made Gohan realize he just made a colossal error in judgement. A sharp pain occurred in his neck and everything went black._

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

" _I believe you. It's really him."_

 _Gohan's eyes automatically moved to where the sound was coming from and a chill ran down his spine when his eyes met Frieza's eyes. The young warrior could feel his throat turn dry instantly. Frieza seemed amused by Gohan's shocked face. The half-saiyan didn't want to show the tyrant how shocked he was but he couldn't help it. It all became way too real now that he saw Frieza's actual face, heard his real voice._

 _Back in the dungeon, Gohan could tell himself that he wasn't going to meet Frieza just yet. He could tell himself that he could still get away. All was not lost just yet. However, now that he could see the lights in Frieza's eyes Gohan realized that he was caught._

" _It's good to see you again little saiyan." Frieza drawled as he studied the young warrior. "Then again, you're not so little anymore, are you? Little Saiyan all grown up."_

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

 _The half-saiyan jolted visibly when the door to the dungeon was opened. The young warrior shook his head as he heard footsteps approaching his cell and shadows danced almost mockingly just far away enough to make it impossible for the half-saiyan to determine their shapes._

 _It was too late. Gohan realized that now. This time there was no getting away. This time he would not be that lucky._

 **Moving on to the next chapter!**

 **Chapter 8. One Plan Gone Wrong.**

He wondered what could be landing on the ship now. Suddenly, another chill ran down his spine. Oh no, it couldn't be the Ginyu Force already? Were they that fast?

Gohan shook his head. No it was too early. He listened silently. Were footsteps already coming closer to the dungeon? Gohan made a worried face when he actually heard something. Was he just imagining this? Or not?

The half-saiyan jolted visibly when the door to the dungeon was opened. The young warrior shook his head as he heard footsteps approaching his cell and shadows danced almost mockingly just far enough to make it impossible for the half-saiyan to determine their shapes.

It was too late. Gohan realized that instantly. This time there was no getting away. This time he would not be that lucky.

The half-saiyan decided that he would have to appear strong. No matter what they did to him. He had to stay strong. Saiyans did not go down crying and whining. They went down like real warriors and Gohan intended to do the same. The young warrior made his body appear as tall as possible as he faced the people who were coming around the corner.

When Gohan recognized them, an intense wave of relief washed over him. He knew these people. He knew these people very well. The half-saiyan frowned as he watched them approach. "Took you long enough." He stated.

Vegeta returned Gohan's glare. "Says the person we came to rescue."

"Only after you told me to get myself caught." Gohan countered easily. The plan seemed so easy. Once they realized a large ship filled with bounty hunters was on the same planet they quickly made a plan. They realized the bounty hunters would come for at least one of them. So they made an easier target out of the youngest of the group. Of course, a teenager was so much less scary than a grown man. If only the soldiers knew the line of strength in the saiyan squad.

"Hmm yes... But you were supposed to put up a fight, not get fucked by a pair of pretty blue eyes." Vegeta returned easily. Gohan held his gaze for a moment as he realized that Vegeta had been listening to his thoughts throughout this entirely ordeal. That's how Vegeta knew exactly what happened and how Gohan was caught.

The half-saiyan made a face. "Get me out of these chains please." He stated as he moved.

"Right. Raditz." Vegeta made a motion with his hand and Raditz knelt down next to Gohan to untie the half-saiyan. Gohan thanked his uncle before getting up. He rubbed his wrists before looking at his comrades. Raditz's skill to pick locks continued to surprise Gohan. His uncle was way too good at it. He still needed to get his uncle to teach him all about it.

"Alright." Vegeta said as he turned to the entrance of the cage. "I noted the directions you remembered the second time. We know exactly how to get to the control room. Let's go." Vegeta went first and the rest followed him silently.

Luckily, sneaking was something very familiar to the saiyans. They all knew exactly how to do it. The group silently made their way to the control room. Any time they encountered an enemy soldier, they would take care of the soldier before the enemy even knew what happened. The gap between their strength was so big that the soldiers never even saw them coming.

The control room was crowded when the warriors arrived. They could feel at least two dozen energy levels. The levels were low though and the saiyans assumed they were only there to keep the ship in the universe. They were not trained to fight at all.

Vegeta went in first. The man took one look around and proceeded to carefully aim a red beam to every single person in the room. They were dead before they even realized what happened. The rest of the saiyans headed inside and they all followed Vegeta to the control panel. The group gathered around their leader as Vegeta started typing away on the panel.

"No password… Cocky little bunch." Vegeta muttered as he easily entered the database. It occurred more than one would expect. Especially the stronger warriors thought they were invincible and that nobody would ever dare to break into the system of their ship... It was a mistake the Saiyan team would never make.

Gohan frowned worriedly before looking over his shoulder. Raditz caught the worried twitch at the tip of Gohan's tail. "What's wrong?" He whispered to his nephew.

"Doesn't it seem too easy?" Gohan returned quietly. "Why is nobody relevant in the control room? No leader or supervisor?"

Just then the screen they were all looking at went black. The Saiyans all gave surprised glances as the black screen changed to a sight they didn't expect to see so soon.

"Oh my!" Frieza grinned at the group of Saiyans. Their speechless expressions were probably so amusing to see. "I see all my little monkeys standing neatly in a row." The man glanced at every single. "Please don't look so surprised, Vegeta." Frieza said, turning to the leader of the group.

"When I received the message that the youngest monkey was caught, I knew you wouldn't be far behind. As if someone as strong as my little Gohan would allow himself to be caught by a group of low ranking soldiers…" Frieza held Gohan's gaze for a moment. "No. It just wouldn't do." The man smiled as he turned back to Vegeta. "That's not how we raised the brat, now is it?" Frieza's smile disappeared. "Did you really think I would fall for such a stupid trick, you dumb monkeys?"

"Still," Vegeta was the first one to find his voice again, "you're all the way in your ship and we are right here. You're a great warlord, Frieza, but even you cannot reach through a screen."

"It's still lord Frieza for you, Vegeta." Frieza stated sweetly. "But don't worry. I'll make sure that you know how to pronounce my name properly before I allow you to die." The man looked over all the Saiyans. "All of you will suffer greatly before you will be send off to the next dimension."

A tremor went through the ship and Frieza showed a grin once more. "I will see you soon." He stated before the screen went black.

Gohan frowned as he looked up at the screen. What just happened? However, he didn't have to think about this long as his mental sensors picked up several huge powerlevels that were coming in their direction quickly.

"The Ginyu Goons." Vegeta stated as he looked in the direction the powerlevels were coming from. "We need to get out of here if we don't want to face them."

"Why?" Gohan asked. "We can take them."

Vegeta turned to the half-saiyan. "Frieza is closing in on us. Even if we can defeat the Ginyu Force, they will hold us up long enough for Frieza to gain enough ground on us. We are not ready for Frieza. Not yet."

"How are you so sure?" Gohan asked, frowning. "We've been training like crazy. We can take him. Frieza's not invincible."

"We're leaving." Vegeta stated as he turned to the doorway.

"No. I want to fight them!" Gohan snarled in response. "We've been training for this forever." He complained. "We cannot continue to prolong the inevitable."

"Guys." Raditz said as he sensed the power levels coming closer quickly. "We need to make a decision now."

"I'm staying." Gohan stated.

"No. We are leaving." Vegeta snarled. The man looked Gohan straight in the eye. "We'll talk about this when we get back on our ship. For now, we are leaving and you can either take all of them on by yourself or come with us." The man ignored Gohan's glare as he turned to the others. "Let's go."

Vegeta didn't wait for them but turned and ran out the room. Turles and Nappa immediately followed. Raditz placed a hand on Gohan's shoulder. "Please, nephew. Come with us." He stated quietly.

Gohan couldn't make up his mind. His sensors were telling him he had to get out now. The Ginyu Goons were so close they were practically one hallway away. He wanted to fight them so badly. He needed to do what he had been planning on doing for months, years even. They could finally put an end to the Ginyu Goons. Those jerks. They deserved to die a miserable death. However, he knew he wasn't strong enough to face them alone. Now wasn't the time. He waited for this for years… He could wait another couple of months.

The half-saiyan looked up at Raditz. "Let's go." He stated. Raditz grinned and nodded. The two ran out the door and into the hallway.

"There they are!" Ginyu shouted as he pointed to the two Saiyans.

Gohan and Raditz didn't think as they ran away from the Ginyu Goons. They followed the sensation of their comrades as they continued to run. It wasn't long before the Ginyu Force started to send blasts after them, forcing the two to jump away in order to avoid them.

"Come back here, you filthy monkeys!" Ginyu yelled after them as he sent one particular nasty shot that nearly blew Gohan off his feet. The half-saiyan stepped aside just in time. He was not so lucky the next time. An energy blast burned the outer side of his thigh and Gohan almost tripped. He caught his fall with his hands and managed to keep moving.

"Woohoo! I almost got him there!" Jeice cheered right behind them.

"Nah, it was a lucky shot." Recoome responded.

"Remember!" Ginyu said cheerfully. "First one to get one to the ground gets a free round of drinks!"

Gohan forced himself to ignore their taunts. He needed to focus on getting away. This was not the time to fight. He gritted his teeth, hoping this would lessen the pain in his leg, but he had too much experience with pain to believe that would work.

Raditz and Gohan entered the launching area, where Vegeta, Turles and Nappa were already standing. Gohan didn't even allow himself to look around the small launching area. It was the same as the launching areas in all the other ships. A small black entrance in which a single space pod could easily fit. The dark hole was actually a hallway through which the space pod would be shot in order to get enough power to travel space.

"They're right behind us." Gohan stated as they ran inside.

"Okay. Raditz, Turles and Nappa distract them." Vegeta ordered right before the Ginyu Force ran in the room as well. The three Saiyans wasted no time as they ran to stand in a line facing the Ginyu Force.

Vegeta beckoned Gohan and the half-saiyan approached him. Gohan noticed the entrance to another ship. The ship of the Ginyu Force? Gohan looked at Vegeta and the man nodded. "We're taking their ship. It's faster than ours." Vegeta whispered. "We have to be fast." The man extended his hands to the half-saiyan. "Open your mind." He ordered.

Gohan realized that Vegeta wanted to relay his plan through mental communication. That way the Ginyu Force wouldn't be able to listen in on it. Gohan opened his bond with Vegeta and he immediately heard Vegeta's voice in his mind.

" _Took you long enough. Alright. Give me a power boost. Enough to send an adequate blast to the Ginyu Force in order to knock them out. I will send a blast to the Ginyu Force. When I fire the blast, race to the others, grab them and race to the doorway. Nappa knows what to do from there. Ginyu never uses passwords for his doors. He thinks nobody can outsmart him, cocky jerk. I will follow as soon as I can. If they are too close behind me…. Close the doors. You'll be in command."_

Gohan frowned when he heard the last sentences. _"I'm not going to leave you behind. Let me send the blast. I'm the fastest."_

" _You have to fight Frieza. That has to be you. I'm expendable."_

" _You're not for us!"_ Gohan stopped himself from mentally talking when he noticed Vegeta's glare. _"Fine. Take what you need."_ The half-saiyan extended his hands to Vegeta and the man accepted them. Their palms heated up against each other as energy was transferred between their hands.

" _That's enough."_ Vegeta's voice sounded in Gohan's head.

" _Just a little more."_ Gohan returned.

" _You need energy to keep up your speed."_ Vegeta released the half-saiyan and the transfer automatically stopped. Gohan bit his lip as he stared at Vegeta hands. He wanted to give more energy. He felt like he hadn't given Vegeta enough power to send a proper blast.

" _Focus."_ Vegeta's voice rang through his mind. The half-saiyan nodded once to Vegeta and turned to the others. Turles was keeping the Ginyu Goons at bay by talking to them. Gohan had no idea how Turles managed to do things like this all the time. He could persuade anyone into anything. It was quite interesting to watch. Gohan often hoped he could learn something from watching Turles work his magic but whenever Gohan tried to do something similar he failed miserably. _"Wait for my signal."_

Gohan waited impatiently as Vegeta slowly powered up. The man was getting ready to allow his power to soar up within a second so that the Ginyu Force's scouters wouldn't track his power before he could do anything. They needed to do this fast and clean.

" _Now."_

Gohan didn't wait for Vegeta's attack. The half-saiyan immediately went for his comrades. Before they could react, Gohan used his hands to grab Nappa and Raditz while his tail curled around Turles's arm. The Saiyans gave shocked sounds but before they could do anything Gohan was already flying towards the tunnel to the Ginyu Force's ship, dragging them along in the process.

A large explosion gained their attention. Raditz, Turles and Nappa made shocked sounds and Gohan noticed they were resisting his grip in order to go back and help Vegeta. "No! Vegeta's orders are that we go to the doorway. We enter the ship and wait for him. If the Ginyu Force is too hot on his tail…"

The others looked at him when he stopped talking. They understood exactly what Gohan was not saying. The three Saiyans powered up and slowly but surely flew along with Gohan until he realized they were keeping up with him and he released them. They group neared the gates to the ship of the Ginyu Force and they halted there.

Gohan tried to open the gates but when he pressed his palm against the lock, the small screen above the lock came to life and told Gohan it required a password.

"What?" Gohan hissed. "Crap. Since when does the Ginyu Force use a password?"

"Try 0000." Raditz suggested.

Gohan quickly pressed this into the keypad.

DENIED.

The round hallway they were standing in vibrated and the four saiyans became aware that Vegeta was coming in their direction quickly. The Ginyu Force were still in the same spot but that would probably change soon. They needed this door to open now. Right now.

Turles pushed passed Gohan and pressed in another combination. There was a tensed silence before…

ACCEPTED.

The four Saiyans breathed out a sigh of relieve when the door casually slid upwards and opened the ship of the Ginyu Force to them. Gohan ushered his comrades inside before standing there as well. "Nappa. You know what to do right?" Gohan asked.

"Yep." Nappa was already running away and gave a last wave to the others. Gohan turned to the hallway just in time to see Vegeta racing closer. Gohan smiled in relief. They were going to make it.

However, a blast nearly blew Vegeta off his feet. The man was thrown sideways, into the wall of the hallway. Gohan's smile fell off his face as he watched Vegeta drop down. The Saiyan prince gave his body no time to recover as he quickly scrambled up and started running the last few miles to the entrance.

The Ginyu Force was right behind him. Recoome powered up and used his speed. Vegeta widened his eyes when he realized Recoome was right behind him. The man whirled around just in time to catch Recoome's boot. Recoome was thrown on the ground by the Saiyan prince.

Vegeta immediately had to beat off Jeice, who was close enough to attack Vegeta too now. The Saiyan powered up fully in order to face the members of the Ginyu Force. He blocked an attack from Jeice and punched the red-faced warrior away. Before he could even focus his energy, Recoome was attacking him again.

Gohan watched with a shocked expression. The half-saiyan bit his lip. This was going all wrong.

"We need to leave now." Nappa's voice sounded through the intercom. "Where is Vegeta?"

Gohan looked up at the ceiling before looking back to the fight in the hallway. The half-saiyan felt a dreading feeling in his stomach. The half-saiyan bit his lip as his thoughts raced in his head. The young warrior made a decision and pressed on the button to activate the intercom. "Nappa. Gohan here. Prepare for departure."

 ****** Planet Earth ******

"You're just a little too weak for me, honey."

Eighteen grinned as she blocked Katy's fist. The female android pulled Katy closer in order to knee the young woman in the stomach. Katy expected this move and she moved up her leg to block the android's knee. The two pushed each other away and they flew a few feet away from each other in order to catch their breath.

"Give me time." Katy stated as she reached up and used the sweatband around her wrist to wipe away the sweat on her forehead. Her hair stuck to her face but she didn't care. That's why she loved to fight. In any other situation she would have been annoyed by her sweating face but now she wasn't because it was part of the deal. Sweating was a part of exercising. It was normal and kind of liberating actually. Especially the nice and long shower afterwards would be amazing.

"You will need a century to catch up to me." Eighteen taunted as she smiled at her opponent.

Katy narrowed her eyes. "I think you're underestimating me. Or maybe you're overestimating yourself."

"I probably am. I have to say you keep surprising me. You're a good fighter." Eighteen responded. She stretched her arms lazily.

"Right back at yah." Katy said cheerfully. She liked training with Eighteen. Even though Eighteen was stronger than Katy, the latter could put up a good fight and Katy was getting better and better.

They had their first training together a couple of weeks ago in order to see how they measured up to each other and it quickly became a weekly thing. Katy stretched her back for a moment before she looked to Eighteen.

"Ready for round two?" She suggested.

"Anytime." Eighteen responded confidently. The two launched at each other immediately. They exchanged a couple of punches, all blocked or deflected, until Eighteen managed to punch Katy's chin. The young woman stumbled backwards and was immediately punched in the stomach.

Eighteen tried to throw in another punch but Katy's legs moved up and kicked the android away. Eighteen was thrown backwards and Katy followed her immediately. The young female warrior pulled back a fist in order to punch the android but Eighteen grabbed her fist. Katy immediately tried to land a punch with her other fist but Eighteen caught this one as well. The two held eye-contact for a moment as they breathed out. Then the strength match started.

Katy tensed her muscles and pushed against Eighteen. The android licked her lips as she forced all her strength into her arms, pushing against Katy. The two tensed like this until their arms started trembling. Android Eighteen suddenly smiled at Katy. "What do you say we put an end to this?" She asked.

Katy only received a moment to look confused before Eighteen head-butted her against her forehead. Katy gave out a groan of pain as she fell back. Eighteen's elbow landed in her stomach and Katy was launched down to the ground.

She could feel the pain of her body making contact with the harsh stone surface. Katy made a whiny sound as she allowed her pained body to rest for a moment. A pair of feet landed near her, slowly stepped closer to her and a shadow blocked out the sun as Android Eighteen leaned on her knees in order to look at Katy.

"Giving up, are you?" Eighteen teased as she studied the younger warrior.

Katy opened her eyes and met Eighteen's gaze. The young woman narrowed her eyes only a moment before she placed her hands together and sent an energy blast right at the android. Eighteen was thrown backwards and Katy quickly got up.

The rosy-eyed warrior powered up as she stepped closer to the android. "As if that's ever going to happen." Katy muttered before she ran at the android whom was beckoning her to come closer.

 ****** Ship of the Ginyu Force ******

"Prepare for departure." Gohan ordered before he powered up. The young warrior transformed to the first super saiyan level without even thinking about the consequences. He didn't care that the transformation took more strength from him than usual. He didn't feel the strain in his body after pushing through that barrier between the regular and transformed state. The young warrior flew towards the scene as fast as he could.

The Ginyu Force didn't even see him coming. Gohan smacked Jeice and Recoome off of his comrade. He grabbed hold of Vegeta before powering up and sending an energy wave towards the shocked forms of the Ginyu Force. Without looking back, Gohan tightened his grip on Vegeta before he flew back to the ship.

The door was already closing and Gohan had to push all his power in his speed as he raced towards the doorway. The two slipped right through the gap and Gohan could feel the door tapping against his feet as he fell through it.

Just as they fell on the ground, the door closed fully and the ship unbuckled itself from the larger ship and hurried off. Gohan let out a sigh when he realized they made it. They got away from the Ginyu Force.

The half-saiyan let out a relieved chuckle before everything went black.

 ****** One Long Nap Later ******

"… have to hurry …"

"…. Frieza knows now…."

"… There's nothing else … "

"Ah, you're finally awake, are you?"

Gohan opened his eyes to find Raditz beaming at him. The half-saiyan groaned as a wave of pain went through his body. His entire body felt like something heavy had been lying on it for a very long time and now he found it difficult to move his tired limbs. Gohan took a moment to look around and he noticed he wasn't lying in a bedroom. He was curled up on a couch in what appeared to be a type of living room. The room was large and lavishly decorated with fluffy looking couches and chairs, beautiful glass tables and Gohan even noticed several types of game machines spread out over the room.

"What happened?" Gohan asked as he pushed his body up.

"Stay down." Raditz said soothingly as he placed his hand on Gohan's shoulder. "You exhausted yourself when you transformed. Vegeta told us you gave a lot of energy to him. You certainly didn't have enough to transform so it was to be expected that your body shut down."

"Did we make it?" Gohan asked as he looked around.

"Yes, we did." Vegeta walked in the room. He was sporting several bruises and some obviously stitched wounds. Gohan realized there wasn't a rejuvenation tank on board of this ship. "We left the Ginyu Force on a ship that can never match the speed of our ship."

"And we took over theirs!" Gohan realized out loud. That's why this room looked so uncomfortably lavish. It was the ship of the Ginyu Force.

"After they received a taste of your strength." Vegeta stated calmly as his piercing gaze landed on Gohan. "And I'll bet they'll be running straight to Frieza."

Gohan made a face. "I couldn't leave you there, Vegeta."

"I ordered you to…"

"I'm not that kind of person." Gohan interrupted in a raised voice. "You know that as well as I do."

Vegeta was silent for a moment before he walked around the couch and sat down near Gohan's feet. "I know." The man glanced up at Raditz. "He's awake now. Get something to eat." He stated.

"Right." Raditz nodded once before heading to the entrance.

Gohan watched as Raditz left before sending Vegeta questioning glance. The Saiyan prince rolled his eyes. "Weak fool wouldn't leave your side until he was sure you were properly healed."

The half-saiyan smiled as a warm feeling towards Raditz ran through his body. Honestly, how was he getting so attached to these people? Why was it so easy?

"Where are the others?" Gohan asked to get his mind off of his uncle. The young warrior looked around once more to ascertain that the others were not in the room.

"Nappa and Turles went to explore the ship and they got stuck in the simulation room." Vegeta complained. "Of all the ships we had to take, it had to be the Ginyu Force's ship. Honestly, with all these foolish pastimes available, how did the Ginyu Force keep up their strength? I don't get it."

The half-saiyan frowned confusedly. "They're stuck in there?"

"Oh, they can come out. They're just too busy simulating themselves into pornographic images." Vegeta responded, still sounding very much annoyed.

Pornographic images? "Surely you're overreacting." Gohan stated, laughing Vegeta's comment away.

Vegeta raised an eyebrow at the half-saiyan before getting up and heading closer to him. Gohan sank back into the pillows when he noticed the expression on Vegeta's face and he opened his mouth to say something but the only sound he could produce was an outraged "Hey!" when Vegeta easily picked him up and threw his body over his shoulder.

Ignoring Gohan's complains Vegeta made sure he was holding the half-saiyan properly before heading to the entrance of the room.

"Vegeta." Gohan stated in a stern voice. "Put me down now and you will not get hurt."

Vegeta barked out a laugh in response. "You tapped into your vital energy in order to transform just two hours ago. Your body needs all that it has just to stay alive right now. You're not going to be doing any hurting any time soon."

"I won't be tired forever."

"You're a very forgiving person." Vegeta stated sweetly. "Besides, you wouldn't hurt the comrades you got attached to so easily, would you?"

Kami damn it. Gohan realized that his bond to Vegeta was still wide open, which is how Vegeta heard his thoughts right after Raditz left, and he immediately closed it. Gohan's temporary focus on putting up the walls in his mind, which took more energy than he thought at first, gave Vegeta enough time to cross the distance to the simulation room.

The man entered the room and put Gohan down a couple of meters from the doorway. The half-saiyan leaned against the wall and looked around. At the first glance of the scarcely dressed alien women, Gohan's first instinct was to lower his gaze to the ground. After hearing Vegeta's chuckle in response to Gohan's embarrassed reaction the half-saiyan quickly moved his eyes up again.

"Where are we?" Gohan asked as he looked around. He noticed women from many different races spread out over the large lavishly decorated room. They were seated on the red pillows, curled up on the satin beds and cheerfully bathing in the bubbling baths.

"The largest brothel in the universe." Nappa stated as he turned to the half-saiyan. Two female aliens were hanging around him. One had entirely black eyes and a light blue skin. Small darker blue dots ran all over her naked arms and legs but they were not pressed on her showing middle. The second one had a light yellow skin and lavender irises with yellow pupils. "I've wanted to go there forever."

"Women from every race!" Turles said excitedly. "Look at them." The man was currently seated in one of the bubble baths together with several young looking females.

"I'd rather not." Gohan muttered as his thoughts loyally went back to his girlfriend, still on planet earth

Vegeta made an annoyed sound. "One more hour." He stated. "Then we get back to training." He waited for Nappa and Turles to affirm his comment before he turned to the entrance.

Gohan noticed that Vegeta was leaving and he quickly called out: "Hey! Take me out of here."

Vegeta paused and sent Gohan a sweet smile. "I thought you hated to be carried around by me. Who am I to keep forcing you into things like that?" He said before leaving the room.

"Hey! Vegeta come back!" Gohan panicked somewhat when two female prostitutes sat down next to him. "I have a girlfriend!" He yelled, hoping Vegeta would come and fetch him. Gohan let out a sigh when nobody responded to his plea and the two aliens only draped themselves all over him. Gohan tried not to look at them and definitely not think anything that would make him disloyal to the love of his life.

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

 **I hope you liked it. Please review and let me know what you think!**

 **Until next time!**


	9. Chapter 9: Preparing For War

**Previously on A Half-breed's Life 3:**

" _We're only going in to get some food and then we're out of there again." Vegeta stated as his gaze moved to his comrades. "You know the plan. Raditz watches the ship. Nappa goes for the clothing. Turles, water. Half-breed and I will head for food. Act normal. We're not the wanted Saiyan team at all. We're just passing by. And we're alone and not in a team. So we're not interesting at all. Got it?"_  
 _  
_ ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

 _The change in atmosphere was sudden. People moved out of the way almost on instinct. Civilians who probably never even experienced a bad or dangerous situation could now behave accordingly and get themselves out of harm's way so easily. Gohan heard the scared gasp from the woman he was just talking to. He didn't know why but he felt protective over this stranger._

" _Run." Gohan ordered as he turned away from her to face the danger. He was confronted with at least a dozen warriors, all dressed in the armour he knew all too well. As he ran his eyes over the warriors he could swear he even recognized a couple of them. Vaguely._

" _Why would I?" A whisper right behind him made Gohan realize he just made a colossal error in judgement. A sharp pain occurred in his neck and everything went black._

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

 _When Gohan recognized them, an intense wave of relief washed over him. He knew these people. He knew these people very well. The half-saiyan frowned as he watched them approach. "Took you long enough." He stated._

 _Vegeta returned Gohan's glare. "Says the person we came to rescue."_

" _Only after you told me to get myself caught." Gohan countered easily._

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

" _Doesn't it seem too easy?" Gohan returned quietly. "Why is nobody relevant in the control room? No leader or supervisor?"_

 _Just then the screen they were all looking at went black. The Saiyans all gave surprised glances as the black screen changed to a sight they didn't expect to see so soon._

" _Oh my!" Frieza grinned at the group of Saiyans. Their speechless expressions were probably so amusing to see. "I see all my little monkeys standing neatly in a row." The man glanced at every single. "Please don't look so surprised, Vegeta." Frieza said, turning to the leader of the group._

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

" _Took you long enough. Alright. Give me a power boost. Enough to send an adequate blast to the Ginyu Force in order to knock them out. I will send a blast to the Ginyu Force. When I fire the blast, race to the others, grab them and race to the doorway. Nappa knows what to do from there. Ginyu never uses passwords for his doors. He thinks nobody can outsmart him, cocky jerk. I will follow as soon as I can. If they are too close behind me…. Close the doors. You'll be in command."_

 _Gohan frowned when he heard the last sentences. "I'm not going to leave you behind. Let me send the blast. I'm the fastest."_

" _You have to fight Frieza. That has to be you. I'm expendable."_

" _You're not for us!" Gohan stopped himself from mentally talking when he noticed Vegeta's glare. "Fine. Take what you need." The half-saiyan extended his hands to Vegeta and the man accepted them. Their palms heated up against each other as energy was transferred between their hands._

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

 _Gohan noticed that Vegeta was leaving the brother simulation and he quickly called out: "Hey! Take me out of here."_

 _Vegeta paused and sent Gohan a sweet smile. "I thought you hated to be carried around by me. Who am I to keep forcing you into things like that?" He said before leaving the room._

" _Hey! Vegeta come back!" Gohan panicked somewhat when two female prostitutes sat down next to him. "I have a girlfriend!" He yelled, hoping Vegeta would come and fetch him. Gohan let out a sigh when nobody responded to his plea and the two aliens only draped themselves all over him. Gohan tried not to look at them and definitely not think anything that would make him disloyal to the love of his life._

 **Dum – Da – Dum – Dum~**

 **Chapter 9. Preparing for war.**

"Alright. Everybody out!" Vegeta yelled as he looked around the simulation room. The man stormed to the control panel and turned the entire simulation off.

Gohan was thankful for Vegeta's annoyance. Right after Vegeta left, Turles and Nappa realized that Gohan was still there. Despite the half-saiyan's complaints and even pleas, the two full-blooded saiyans dragged the immobile warrior to the bathtub and threw him in with his clothes still on. Gohan had to admit that this was the strangest type of simulation he ever experienced. The water felt warm against his clothes but he was not getting wet. Similarly, the simulated women's bodies were there, pressed up against him, but then again they were not really there. It was almost real enough to believe but then again it wasn't.

Raditz noticed Gohan was sitting on the ground and he walked over to help his nephew up. Gohan's body was still recovering from using too much power during their escape from the Ginyu Force. Gohan already gave Vegeta a lot of his own strength so that the Saiyan prince could distract the Ginyu Goons. However, Vegeta couldn't distract them long enough for the others, including Vegeta, to get away and Gohan eventually decided to ignore Vegeta's previous wishes that they leave him behind if trouble occurred and used so much energy to transform that he tapped into his pure energy; the energy his body needed to live. Now Gohan's body was slowly but surely recovering from the shortage of power, which temporarily left Gohan so exhausted that he could hardly move.

They gathered in the living area where Raditz put Gohan down on the couch. The half-saiyan curled up there contently. Finally he was out of that brothel simulation.

Vegeta turned to the ground. "Alright. We need to discuss where we are going from here. We already had a meeting about our current situation when you were still unconscious, half-breed, and we decided that it would be best to involve you in the meeting as well."

"That's greatly appreciated." Gohan stated meekly.

Vegeta sent the young warrior an impatient glance in response to this interruption. "Of course, the Ginyu Force was left behind on a ship that is slower than ours. They cannot catch up to us. Strange thing is that they're not even trying." Vegeta turned to the control panel and typed something in. The screen showed a dark area with small dots that indicated the nearby planets and stars with their names written right next to them. They also noticed a slightly larger dot that was their ship and a dot that was moving away from them.

"That's the current ship of the Ginyu Goons. We were hoping they would take ours but they must have noticed that the ship was scheduled to self-destruct. Interestingly enough, they are not heading after us. They are going somewhere else." Vegeta stated as he looked up at the screen. The man turned to his comrades and made eye-contact with the half-saiyan. "We have reason to believe that they are going to meet up with Frieza… And that Frieza is heading for planet Earth."

"WHAT?" Gohan exclaimed, shocked by this new piece of information. "On what grounds?"

"We think that Frieza somehow found out that planet Earth is still intact. Some of your acquaintances know that planet Earth is still there and some of our friends know it as well. Anyone could have told him or let something slip."

"So, we should head for planet Earth too." Gohan stated, nodding. The half-saiyan was met with a brief silence. "What? Oh come on, don't give me those looks. Katy is there. And Justin too. We can't let them fend for themselves!"

"Calm down." Vegeta stated in response to Gohan's rising power level. "We agree that we should go to planet Earth. As you said, we have acquaintances there." The man was silent for a moment and Gohan frowned when he felt a strange sensation coming from his comrade. The half-saiyan used his mental bond with Vegeta to try and find out what the sensation meant but a brief glance from Vegeta accompanied by a sharp stinging sensation in Gohan's head made the half-saiyan back off.

Meanwhile, Turles was offering his own plan. "We still don't know for sure if Frieza is going to planet Earth. We could follow his ship, stay on a safe distance and see where he is actually going. Meanwhile, we train as hard as we can in order to prepare for our battle."

"Sounds good enough." Raditz agreed. "Though we should make sure we stay far away enough so that his ship cannot notice our presence." He added.

"Evidently." Turles said, nodding.

Nappa agreed with the others but glanced at the half-saiyan when he noticed Gohan was particularly silent. "I sense disagreement."

Gohan looked up at him. "Shouldn't be new to you." He answered snidely.

Nappa snorted. "Put the teenage attitude away please and tell us what you're thinking."

The half-saiyan lowered his gaze for a moment. "Frieza's ship is faster than ours. I agree that we shouldn't rush into battle but what if we follow Frieza and find out that he is actually going to planet earth? It could take us days to get there after Frieza lands and it will only take him minutes to find Katy and Justin."

"It's a risk we'll have to take." Vegeta responded strictly. "There's always a possibility that it might be a trap. Frieza might expect us to think he's going for planet Earth and he might expect us to rush after him and fall neatly into his arms."

"Or he might be going for Earth in order to take revenge. He must have noticed Justin and Katy were not with us." Gohan retorted. "What's better than holding Justin and Katy hostage? He knows I will come after him if he has them."

"He also knows I am still in charge of this team." Vegeta responded harshly. "And I will not be controlled by my emotions like that." Gohan closed his mouth and frowned at his squad leader. "We will follow the original plan and if you're not okay with that you can go out there on your own."

"I might do that." Gohan said stubbornly. The half-saiyan got up from the couch. His body was still tired but he could finally stand up and he slowly but surely walked to the doorway. He just wished he could walk a little faster but his body was not ready for that just yet. The others didn't stop him from leaving the room and Gohan was thankful for that. For once they left him alone.

Gohan was not allowed to be alone for too long as several hours later Vegeta's voice sounded throughout the entire ship, calling the other Saiyans to the training room for some intense training. When Gohan arrived in the training room he realized that Nappa wasn't there. Vegeta explained that they wanted to keep at least one person in the control room in order to keep watch on Frieza's or any other possibly hostile spaceships.

As the training proceeded Gohan realized that he was excited to train again. After everything that happened in the last twenty hours he was eager to get back into an activity that had become such a large part of his life that it came natural to him.

Turles seemed eager as well. The two found each other early in the battle and they had been fighting each other relentlessly for hours now.

Gohan moved up his hand to punch his uncle but Turles anticipated his movement. The older warrior caught Gohan's punch. He made a clicking sound with his tongue. "Not good enough, nephew." He stated in a mocking tone before pulling the young warrior closer. Before Gohan realized what was going to happen Turles already kneed him in his stomach. Turles tried to follow up by throwing the young warrior sideways but Gohan's tail curled around Turles' lower leg and the man was pulled down before being thrown right into the harsh gray floor.

"I could say the same thing." Gohan stated sweetly. The half-saiyan quickly stretched his arm while he watched Turles get up.

Turles frowned at his nephew as he slowly flew up until he was on Gohan's level. "Okay. Auch." He stated. "Let me tell you right now that that was the last punch you're going to land on me today."

"Oh really?" Gohan grinned as he tensed his muscles. He pushed his power higher and higher until he could feel that barrier. It was the thin veil of energy between his normal body and that of the super Saiyan. Aside from his own strength, Gohan could feel Turles' eyes on him. The jealousy was always visible whenever he transformed to the Super Saiyan level. His comrades would never admit it out loud but he could see it on their faces; they were definitely jealous of his ability to transform.

"Now, let me ask you again, are you sure I won't land a single punch on you between now and the next couple of minutes?" Gohan asked sweetly right before disappearing from Turles' sight. The older warrior frantically looked around for a moment before a fist bumped against his cheek harshly. The man was thrown sideways and landed on the unforgiving ground once again. "Cause I think I just proved you wrong." Gohan placed his hands on his hips and sent his uncle a grin.

Turles growled as he got up. His cheek was burning painfully but only partially because of the punch; he was also ashamed for being caught off guard like that. Damn this kid. "You've been spending way too much time with us." He complained.

"You say that more often." Gohan responded without missing a beat.

"And the situation seems more annoying every time I say it." Turles called back as he placed his hands on his hips.

Gohan made an exaggerated bow to his uncle. "Why don't you punch it out of me then?" He suggested sweetly as he stood up straight and made eye-contact with his uncle. The half-saiyan's tail was swaying behind him on quite a high level, bordering on being disrespectful towards his uncle. As long as Gohan and Turles were both regular soldiers, Turles's age put him on a higher hierarchical level than Gohan and the half-saiyan usually kept the tip of his tail near hip height when addressing his uncle. Now it was located higher, just beneath the half-saiyan's shoulder blades, dangerously close to crossing the line to the area above Gohan's shoulder blades which would be an insult to his uncle. But Gohan was only taunting his uncle; he wasn't planning on making this into a real argument.

Nevertheless, Turles still felt annoyed by Gohan's behavior and he launched at the young warrior to punch him. Gohan avoided the punch easily, stepping aside in the air and allowing Turles to almost fall down because of the failed punch. Gohan smiled innocently when Turles looked at him. Turles made an annoyed sound before trying to punch the half-saiyan again. Gohan stepped back this time. The air of easiness that was floating around the half-saiyan angered his uncle even more. Turles threw a couple of punches at the young warrior and the punches got angrier as Gohan dodged every single one of them.

"Are you going to hit me any time soon?" Gohan asked as he tilted his head sideways.

"I'm not just going to hit you." Turles stated through grinding teeth. "I'm going to tear your ears off your head and put them on backwards."

"No empty threats, uncle." Gohan grinned as he beckoned Turles. "Show me."

"Don't worry. I will." Turles growled before he launched at the young warrior once again. The two engaged in a heated battle, throwing punches at each other while blocking the hostile punches. The two seemed evenly matched, though they both knew that was because Gohan was holding back.

Raditz and Vegeta were watching the fight in silence. The two had been at it for a couple of hours now and they both decided it was time for a break. Vegeta sipped from his drink just as Raditz spoke up. "Gohan appears to feel better."

"Meeting your worst enemy will do that for you." Vegeta responded briefly. "He probably realized there's more to life than childish grudges towards his comrades."

"You think so?" Raditz asked.

Vegeta shrugged. "I don't really care. As long as he cooperates with us I don't see the problem." He responded before stretching his muscles and letting out a yawn. "That's enough training for me." He decided. "I'll go and fetch Nappa so he can get some training in too while I keep watch."

Raditz nodded. "Sure." He responded. The man sipped from his water as he studied the other two fighters. "They probably wouldn't mind if I joined them." He stated briefly before letting his bottle drop to the ground. The man powered up and flew up to his brother and nephew, who greeted him cheerfully.

 ****** Several Hours Later ******

"Vegeta." Gohan complained as he headed into the large common room. "Get these people away from me." The young warrior was followed closely by his two uncles.

The Saiyan prince raised an inquisitive eyebrow as he watched Gohan hide behind him. "What's going on?"

Turles and Raditz decided to split up and were both coming from a different direction, planning on locking the half-saiyan in. Gohan made a face when he realized he was stuck and he decided to put all his hopes on Vegeta. "They're bullying me." He accused.

Now both Vegeta's eyebrows rose in surprise and he sent a look to the older saiyans. "What is really going on here?" He asked them, obviously taking Gohan's explanation as a bad one.

"Half-breed's tail was way too high when he was addressing me just now." Turles stated, nodding several times, as he pointed to the young warrior. "He needs to be punished."

"Again?" Vegeta looked at the half-saiyan now. "That keeps happening to you lately."

"It's not fair." Gohan complained. "It's as if they purposely keep an eye on my tail when they're talking to me just to see if I do something wrong and when I do it, they pounce."

"You should have better control over your tail." Raditz remarked as he stepped closer to the young warrior.

Gohan stepped back in response. "I'm still getting used to it! You guys need to remember that these social rules only started counting for me when I completed my heat ritual. That's a little more than a year ago. You can't expect me to be a pro at all this yet."

The others all knew this well. Gohan went through the heat ritual while they were still travelling to planet Earth. That was almost two years ago, including the time Gohan spent in the Time Chamber, and thus Gohan was still learning how to use the social Saiyan rules in his daily life. Mistakes tended to happen, especially in moments of passion when Gohan was arguing with his comrades. The half-saiyan was quite dominant by nature so his tail had the tendency to move upwards, showing his dominance to the people around him and automatically getting him in trouble. It was difficult for the half-saiyan to be the lowest in rank just because he was the youngest adult Saiyan alive, especially since he was also the strongest Saiyan alive.

"That's why we need to be strict now. You'll learn faster that way." Turles responded cheerfully. "I have to punish you for being disrespectful towards me and I know just the medicine for naughty children." Turles made a sweeping motion with his hand before sending a grin to the half-saiyan.

Gohan sent the man a dark glare. "If you think I'm going to let you do that you've really lost your mind."

"Come here, nephew." Turles said as he stepped closer.

"Vegeta~" Gohan whined as he stepped behind the Saiyan Prince.

Vegeta chuckled. "How do you expect me to help here?"

"You can't let them do this to me. You know they're not being fair."

Turles was still beckoning the half-saiyan to come closer but Gohan wasn't planning on doing anything like that. Vegeta sent the half-saiyan an amused smile. "They do have a point, you know. You need to learn our rules now that you're an adult." Vegeta glanced to the older saiyans briefly before looking back to the half-saiyan. "And you're well aware of my opinion about your overall behavior lately."

Gohan stepped away from Vegeta now. "I trusted you." He accused in a dramatic voice. "I trusted that you would help me out here."

Vegeta shrugged casually. "I've disappointed you before." He stated as he turned and started to leave the little circle of Saiyans. The man tried to step away from them but a tail locked around his waist and pulled him back.

"At least act as my shield." Gohan stated as he stepped back, pulling a surprised Vegeta back with him in the process.

Vegeta was so shocked by this entire situation that he was momentarily silenced by it all. The man looked over his shoulder to the half-saiyan. "What do you think you're doing, brat?"

Gohan's eyes now moved to Vegeta. "Ever considered using a different pronoun?" He asked before looking back to his uncles.

"No, brat suits you." Vegeta deadpanned. The man's own tail released itself and the tip of his tail briefly pressed into Gohan's tail, sliding sideways. This movement lasted for not even a second but it had the desired effect as Gohan gasped audibly and released the Saiyan prince. Gohan stepped back and grabbed a hold of his own tail, brushing through it in order to comfort the tail.

"How do you keep doing these things?" Gohan asked as he stepped back once more.

"You'll learn." Vegeta responded, obviously pleased with himself. The man's own tail was lazily wagging behind him, high. Gohan automatically felt uncomfortable when he noticed Vegeta's tail. "Now I thought we were on a hunt for the strongest warrior in the universe. Since when did we have the spare time to loiter?" He asked as he turned to the other warriors. "You two," Vegeta turned to the two uncles, "should be ashamed of yourself. You are supposed to be training right now. I specifically told you to work on that annoying tendency you both have to leave your left side open." Turles and Raditz both lowered their gazes during this rant. "And you," Vegeta said as he turned to the half-saiyan, "I thought I told you to meditate before our next mental-exercise session. I can still enter your memories without even breaking a sweat so how about I leave aside the typical memories and go straight for the ones you really don't want me to see."

Gohan frowned at the Saiyan prince. "You've seen enough memories I don't want you to see."

"I've only gone for the pathetic little child memories and left the important milestones aside. Say I take a look at your first kiss, huh?" Vegeta watched as Gohan's face fell into a shocked expression, "Or better yet, shall I pass through your first sexual encounter. Kittycat's bound to look smashing under that uniform. Important personal moments jump out at you when you look through someone's mind. They are easier to fix upon than the painful memories hidden deep within your traumatized mind. So if I were you I would start meditating."

Gohan clenched his fists as he glared at the man. "Fine." He stated before heading to the doorway. "I don't care what I do as long as it gets me away from you." He couldn't resist snarling over his shoulder before moving to the doorway.

Vegeta rolled his eyes at Gohan's leaving comments. "Teenagers." He muttered before turning to the two older saiyans. "Too bad I can't say the same about you. So what's your excuse for your insolent behavior?"

"Alright alright." Turles muttered before turning to the doorway as well. "We got it."

Raditz gave one hesitant look to Vegeta's dominant tail before quickly moving to leave the room as well. Vegeta growled in annoyance. "I live with idiots." He complained to himself. "Constant idiots."

 ****** Several Hours Later ******

"AND WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING NOW?"

Vegeta's voice sounded loud in the room where the swimming pool was located. Turles, Raditz and Nappa all looked up in surprise at his scream. They were currently in the pool, wrestling each other and trying to push each other under water, scoring points for each time they managed to practically drown their opponent. They were having fun until Vegeta arrived.

Gohan was standing near the Saiyan prince. They just had a long and tedious meditation session. Vegeta followed up on his threat and started searching for memories that involved Katy. Okay, he didn't go for the juicy stuff. He focused mainly on their first meetings, their first kiss, and by doing this he also found out just how many times Gohan and Katy met during the period that they were not allowed to meet each other.

Back when the Saiyan squad was still working for Frieza, Gohan very quickly fell for the young woman. At the time, Vegeta didn't like the relationship between Gohan and Katy and the Saiyan prince forbid the half-saiyan from seeing her. This, of course, was ignored by the young warrior.

Once Gohan managed to throw Vegeta out of the first memory, Vegeta gave the young warrior a strict glance. "I recall that you weren't allowed to see Kittycat at that time."

Gohan wasn't impressed by Vegeta's attempt to intimidate him. "I recall not giving a shit about your orders."

"Right. Until I beat them into you." Vegeta's voice was low and obviously annoyed. The young warrior tended to have that effect on the Saiyan prince.

Three more times Vegeta managed to lock onto Gohan's memories and all the scenes showed secret meetings with Katy. After their training, the saiyan prince gave the young warrior a heavy glare.

"If only I knew at the time how disobedient you were being." Vegeta stated. "Ugh, I should have pulled your nails off for that. Slowly."

The half-saiyan sent him an innocent glance as he got up. "Don't get any ideas." He muttered warily. Gohan could feel a light headache. It was one of the after-effects of these annoying meditation sessions. "It was a long time ago."

"Part of me doesn't care." Vegeta stated ominously as he got up too. The man stretched his aching muscles and noticed a few pops and cracks in his bones. He would have to stretch more often if his body started to behave like this.

"I'd say listen to the other part." Gohan responded cheerfully. The half-saiyan made an innocent face when Vegeta sent him a glare.

Luckily for the half-saiyan, Vegeta let it all go and decided to search for the rest of the team. The man was already annoyed but his bad mood got even worse when he noticed what the others were doing.

The man was glaring at the warriors when he noticed movement in the corner of his eyes. Gohan had already gotten rid of his armor and uniform and was heading to the pool. "What do you think you're doing?" Vegeta snarled at him.

Gohan started and turned to his leader. "I'm getting in the pool." He stated slowly. "Join us!" He made a beckoning motion with his arm before heading to the swimming pool once more.

"Do you all have a death wish?" Vegeta snarled at them. Gohan jumped in the pool, extracting complains from the other saiyans who were splashed by his landing in the water.

"Oh come on, Vegeta. A little fun never hurt anyone." Turles responded. "Besides, we're wrestling."

Gohan leaned on the edge of the pool with his lower arms and beamed at his older comrade. "Come on, Vegeta! Join!"

Vegeta's gaze softened as his eyes met Gohan's and he let out a sigh. "Fine. One hour!" He stated as his hands reached to his armor. The other cheered before getting right back into the wrestling match between Raditz and Nappa. Gohan challenged Vegeta right after that and the warriors forgot the time as they all wrestled each other, getting annoyed when they lost and begging for rematches every time.

That was until Vegeta actually took a moment to look at the clock and he realized that they had been fooling around for hours now. The man ushered everyone out of the pool and straight into the training room. The others realized that they would have to get some training in as well. They were about to engage in the fight of their lifetime and their survival depended on how much they trained for it. That was proper motivation for the Saiyans to spend the next several hours in the training room.

Gohan pushed his body upwards, his arms straining against him painfully. "501." He muttered to himself before lowering his body again. This caused even more trembling and pain in his arms but he forced his body to lower all the way down until his chest was mere inches from the ground before clenched his teeth together and pushing up again. Oh, the pain. It was horrible and after every push-up Gohan was ready to quit. But every time he told himself to just do one more. Just one more. And he kept going.

The training room appeared heated. The air seemed thicker than usual. The reason might be that they had been training there for hours and hours now. Gohan pulled off his armor and uniform long ago and exchanged them for just spandex pants. It gave him just that little bit more room to breathe. A little bit more freedom to move as he liked. And even though the uniforms were light as a feather and fitted his form perfectly, they were also somewhat isolating and they made Gohan feel warmer than he needed to feel.

The half-saiyan gasped when a flash of icy coldness attacked his system. It took Gohan a moment to realize that it was water. The half-saiyan looked up and noticed that Turles was standing there, holding an empty bottle upside down above him.

"What the hell?"

"Oh come on. You'll thank me for it later. You looked properly overheated." Turles responded cheerfully. The man sat down next to the half-saiyan. "How is it going?"

Gohan momentarily gave up on his push-ups and sat down too. He let his painful arms relax and he could feel a stream of satisfaction run up his arms and right to his heart. The aftermath of exercising could feel very nice. "Fine, I guess." The half-saiyan responded as he looked around the room. "How about you?"

Turles handed him a full bottle of water and the half-saiyan took a sip from it. The man shrugged while Gohan drank from the bottle. "Fine as well. I do wonder if we're doing enough though."

Gohan screwed the cap back on the bottle before handing it back to his uncle. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know. None of us managed to transform. And we've been training for hours and hours every day. It's the only thing we do lately. Eat, Train, sleep, eat, train, and sleep."

Gohan nodded in response. He'd worried about the same topic as well. The young warrior lowered his gaze for a moment as he let this run through his brain. Gohan smiled as he looked up. "So we should kick it up a notch." He stated.

Turles gave him a questioning glance. "What do you mean?"

"This." Gohan got up and took a deep breath. In through the nose and out through the mouth. He focused on his body, his breath fueling his lungs, oxygen flowing through his blood, keeping his body alive. He could feel the energy inside him. Gohan clenched his fists as he channeled the energy, powering up. The young warrior could feel his hair starting to lift upwards as the energy kept building and building, pushing through that barrier was now feeling so familiar to him it was easy.

Gohan opened his eyes, now transformed, and his teal eyes met the eyes of his uncle. "Fight me." He stated as he powered up to his max. Turles looked somewhat hesitant when he felt Gohan's power level. Man... That was high. "Fight me, Turles." Gohan stated again. He clenched his fists. "I won't go easy on you. There's no time for that. We need a war to prepare for, right?"

Turles's eyes lit up as he realized what Gohan was suggesting. The young warrior was referring back to when the adults were training the sixteen-year-old Gohan for war. They never went easy on him. They beat him to an inch of his life almost every single day and Gohan made jumps in strength they could never imagine. They also all knew that if they hadn't put Gohan through that horrifying ordeal, he would have never transformed to the Super Saiyan level. Never.

Turles nodded and got up too. Now it was their time to fight. It was their time to make jumps in strength and this could only happen if they got beaten up, often. Turles powered up to his max, noticing that Gohan's presence didn't even get that much smaller compared to his own strength. How strong was this kid?

The man clenched his fists and launched at the half-saiyan. The young warrior had the tendency to have a defensive fighting style. He let others come to him and he reacted to the moves of his enemies. Turles was okay with this. He would attack the half-saiyan himself. However, his attack was cut short when Gohan sidestepped his first punch, whirled around and kneed Turles right in the stomach. The man could feel the strength of the punch affecting his entire body. A ripple of pain dragged through his bones and he fell on the ground, on all fours, groaning pitifully.

"Get up." Gohan stated strictly.

Turles looked up and noticed that the half-saiyan was frowning at him. Okay, the young warrior was going tough love on this one. Turles pushed his trembling body up. One more of those punches and he was done for surely. That's what he thought now. However, throughout the match with Gohan he learned that he could receive many more of these devastating punches and still come back for more.

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

 **You know what to do~ ;)**


	10. Chapter 10: The Calm Before the Storm

**Thanks for the reviews on the previous chapters!**

 **Chapter 10. Calm Before The Storm.**

Once in a while the saiyans took some time off. They usually used this time to either sleep, prepare food or eat. Right now Gohan was cutting vegetables into little pieces. He didn't mind helping Nappa prepare the food. Lately he realized he didn't mind spending extra time with his comrades at all. When he was younger he tended to seek out his room for some quiet and solitude but these days he preferred company. He wasn't sure why or when this preference changed but it did.

The young warrior looked up when Turles and Raditz noisily entered in the room. They were holding an official looking suit as they approached the others. "Half-breed!" Raditz called as they walked closer. "Look what we found?"

Gohan briefly stopped cutting vegetables to look at the suit. "It's a uniform?" He asked before looking up at them.

"It looks like the suits you used to wear on planet earth." Turles responded as he pushed the suit closer to the half-saiyan.

Gohan pressed his lips together disapprovingly before turning back to his task. "So?"

"So…" Turles easily pulled the chair backwards with Gohan still on it. The man placed the suit against Gohan's front. "Try it on. I bet it will look smashing on you. Just like the suit on the photo!"

The half-saiyan rolled his eyes before snatching the suit out of the man's hands. Gohan proceeded to toss it away and he scraped his chair back to the table. While Raditz went after the suit, Gohan continued his task of cutting vegetables.

Turles crossed his arms over each other as he gave Gohan a disapproving glare, which the half-saiyan casually ignored. Turles suddenly gasped. "I know!" He stated cheerfully. "I'll grab the picture and remind you of how smashing you look in a suit."

"Go right ahead." Gohan muttered without even looking up.

Turles looked taken aback by Gohan's lack of enthusiasm but then nodded and headed for the living quarters. Vegeta leaned back on his seat as he studied the young warrior. "You're in a good mood." He stated.

"Handing out beatings will do that to a person." Gohan responded meekly. For days now Gohan transformed to a super saiyan only to take on the others one by one. He easily defeated them, beating them all until they had to use a rejuvenation tank and then patiently waiting for them to come back for round two. This constant reinforcement of his own strength made Gohan feel a teensy tiny bit cocky.

"It's good for the mind, isn't it?" Vegeta asked in response. Gohan looked up only to meet Vegeta's dark eyes. The half-saiyan realized that he used to be afraid of meeting Vegeta's gaze. The man's eyes were so intense he often gave the impression he was looking right into one's soul. Then again, the man tended to tap into people's mind when they weren't paying attention so that impression might actually be true.

Gohan returned Vegeta's smile. "Exactly." He stated. He was no longer afraid of meeting Vegeta's eyes. He was no longer afraid of them at all. The smallest briefest flutter of fear that he might have experienced a year ago when confronting his comrades was not even there right now.

"I wonder if we're doing enough though." Vegeta muttered as he lowered his gaze to his notes. The man tended to keep notes on his own trainings and these days he was also making diagrams and schemas for the others. "We're not making progress."

"You're all getting stronger." Gohan responded, frowning. He was actually worrying about the same thing. His comrades were all way past the strength level Gohan was on when he went through his first transformation but none of them transformed yet.

"It's not enough." Vegeta said as he slowly shook his head. "Strength isn't everything. We're missing something else." The man looked up. "You transformed because Justin was in mortal danger. Your father transformed because he thought you were killed right in front of him." He summed up as he placed his elbows on the table and leaned on them. "It's obviously an emotional trigger."

"Too bad you guys don't have any emotions." Gohan teased as he glanced up from his chore.

Vegeta only briefly met his eyes in response but didn't give a verbal answer. "That can't be the only answer though. There has to be something else. We can't just let our survival depend on an emotional outburst, especially since we're not used to allowing our emotions to guide us."

"There must be some other way though." Nappa responded as he turned on the stove. He was cooking today. "We don't all go into a raging fit when a loved one gets hurt."

Vegeta stared at his notes. "I wouldn't know how. All the super saiyans we know transformed in a similar manner. Even that future boy transformed while throwing a tantrum."

"It's gone!" Turles called as he headed in the room. "The picture is gone!"

Vegeta raised an eyebrow and his eyes went to the half-saiyan. However Gohan was not looking at him. The half-saiyan was suddenly very interested in the vegetables in front of him. Turles noticed the same thing as he reached over and placed his hands on the table. "Okay. Spill it." He stated to the half-saiyan.

Gohan smiled innocently in response to Turles's exclamation. "Spill about what?"

"We all know who took the picture." Turles responded as he narrowed his eyes at the half-saiyan.

"Then you know more than me because I have no idea." Gohan wasn't planning on humoring Turles any time soon. The young warrior smiled in response to Turles's annoyed face.

"Do I need to tickle it out of you?" Turles threatened as he cracked his knuckles.

Gohan scoffed while he reached out to grab another vegetable. "If you want to leave this room with broken fingers; sure, go ahead." He responded easily. He was so not impressed.

"You know, it wouldn't hurt if you showed a teensy tiny bit more respect for your elders." Turles placed his hands on the table and leaned forward a bit so he could look at the half-saiyan.

Gohan looked up. "I show you guys enough respect." He responded. Vegeta snorted as an answer to the half-saiyan's response. "I do!" Gohan added, almost sounding indignant. "However, you cannot expect me to respond like an adult to such a childish threat."

"You got a point there." Vegeta added.

"Fine!" Turles exclaimed suddenly, earning the attention from the others in the room. "You leave me no choice!" The man practically jumped the half-saiyan and attacked the young warrior with the tickle torture.

Gohan dropped his knife so that he could push Turles off. However, the man managed to pull the half-saiyan along in his fall and the two crashed down on the ground, the chair falling sideways next to them. Turles wasn't done yet as he tried to pin the younger warrior down once more. Gohan wouldn't let this happen and eventually the two started wrestling noisily.

"Raditz. Would you finish the brat's chore for me? I want to start cooking soon." Nappa stated without looking up.

"Right." Raditz grabbed the chair and placed it properly on the floor before sitting down on it. The three Saiyans continued preparing the food while they ignored the wrestling match that continued on the ground.

 ****** Planet Earth ******

"Keep coming at me!" Katy used her thumb to wipe a trickle of blood from her chin. "Come on." She made sure she was standing steadily before motioning for Eighteen to attack her once more.

Eighteen pressed her lips together as she studied her opponent. "Maybe we should stop for today. Take some rest?" Her eyes moved from the glassy look in Katy's eyes to her trembling fists. They had been at it for hours and they had been at it hard. Katy encouraged her stronger opponent to fight at her hardest. There was no room for pity or empathy on a battlefield. Still, Eighteen was feeling quite some empathy as she studied her friend. Katy could hardly stay upright.

"No." Katy shook her head. "We have to train. I need to get stronger."

"There is still time. A little rest won't make you any weaker." Eighteen tried as she stepped closer.

Katy lowered her gaze for a moment as she clenched her fists. "No. I need to train more. I'm not just some damsel in distress. I want to be able to safe myself when Frieza gets here and there's only one way in which I can do that." She looked up at Eighteen again. "I need to train every second of every day and become stronger… Stronger than them. Stronger than Vegeta. Stronger even than Gohan."

"That might be difficult as your boyfriend is very strong." Eighteen said as she crossed her arms over each other. "I would almost say it's impossible for anyone non-saiyan to gain such an amount of strength in such a short time."

"Nothing is impossible." Katy's breathing was shallow and quick. "I don't know why but I know there is something I can do. I can do this." The young warrior powered up. "Just a little bit longer."

"Fine." Eighteen shrugged. If Katy liked getting beaten up; who was Eighteen to deny her that? The female android crouched into a fighting stance, earning a smile from Katy.

Katy followed Eighteen's example and it didn't take long for her to attack. Eighteen blocked Katy's first punch. Katy tried another attack by moving up her leg and kicking Eighteen but Eighteen blocked this kick by bending her leg and catching Katy's kick with her shin. Eighteen made an attempt to retaliate by moving her fist into an opening in Katy's defense but Katy noticed this just in time and she moved backwards to avoid it.

The problem was that Katy did not expect Eighteen to follow her and the strawberry blonde was punched back. Katy made a summersault in the air and sent a blast at Eighteen. The android quickly made her own blast and caught Katy's blast with her own energy.

Katy bit down on her lower lip as she felt Eighteen's energy pushing against hers but she refused to give in. Eighteen narrowed her eyes and pushed more energy into the blast, overtaking Katy and sending the young woman crashing into the ground of the wasteland. Eighteen waited for the dust to settle down and she made a face when she noticed Katy lying in the middle of a large crater.

"Shouldn't have taken it so far." Eighteen muttered as she lowered to the ground. The young android landed on the edge of the crater and looked down. She considered going down and helping Katy up just when her opponent got up by herself.

Katy looked devastated. Wounds, cuts and burns were covering her body. Her uniform was torn in several places, showing gaps of her burnt or wounded skin. The young warrior got up and clenched her fists.

Eighteen frowned when she felt a great power coming from the young female warrior. And it was rising. The android opened her mouth to say something when a bright flash and an explosion occurred in the crater. Eighteen was blown to the ground by a flash of energy, crashing into her and throwing her body over before she even realized what was going on.

Eighteen frowned when the wind settled and she got up. The female android looked around for a moment, wondering what just happened and she realized she couldn't feel Katy anymore. Scared that something might have happened to Katy, the female android ran to the edge of the crater and looked down. A gasp escaped from her mouth at the sight she saw in the crater.

 ****** The Saiyans's Ship ******

Gohan and Turles were locked in a fierce battle. The two warriors exchanged punches at high speed while flying around the training room. Gohan's teal eyes narrowed when Turles allowed an opening to appear in his defense. Such a rookie mistake when fighting a Saiyan.

Turles's only warning was the brief change in Gohan's expression before a punch landed in his stomach. The man let out a pained gasp as his body was forced to make itself small; an automatic response to the pain in his abdomen. Gohan used this to advantage and quickly put his hands together above his head before bringing them down on the middle of Turles's shoulders.

The others watched as Turles's body shot down to the ground. Vegeta crossed his arms over each before he looked up at Gohan again. The half-saiyan was patiently waiting for Turles to come back up. Turles, however, was still on the ground, trying to shake the stars out of his eyes.

"Still no match for him." Nappa commented while he watched Turles sit up.

"This automatically means we are no match for Frieza." Vegeta added as he uncrossed his arms. "Turles!" He called. "Take a rest. I'll take over."

"I can still go on." Turles responded. The man quickly stood up to show he was still able to fight but not even a second later his knees went weak and he fell to the ground again. "Or not."

Vegeta looked up at the half-saiyan. Gohan was studying him silently but he now smiled and motioned for him to come closer. Vegeta couldn't help but smile in response. Gohan was definitely in his element. He was the strongest warrior here and he continued to show that by beating every single saiyan one after another.

"He enjoys this way too much, doesn't he?" Nappa asked as he also looked up. He noticed the gesture Gohan made to the Saiyan prince and he couldn't help but be amused by it.

Vegeta glanced to his older comrade. "I fear this is a monster we personally created. We might as well reap what we sowed, right?"

"Is anyone going to challenge me or what?" Gohan called impatiently. The half-saiyan's foot was tapping on the air. "Or are you all too scared? Should I lose my transformation so that you weaklings might dare to come closer?"

Nappa whistled. "He's getting way too cocky. We should retaliate soon."

"I know." Vegeta exchanged glances with his older comrade. "We should show him just how scared we are of crossing him. Soon. Try to think something up. Meanwhile I'll give him his way for now." The man turned back to the half-saiyan and flew up to Gohan's level.

"Finally." Gohan stated in an annoyed voice. "I was growing old here."

Vegeta chuckled. "I think somebody is getting a little spoiled." He stated in an almost sweet voice.

Gohan returned the man's good mood. "Maybe a little." The half-saiyan's body sank into a fighting stance and he motioned for Vegeta to attack him. "Let's do this." The stated when Vegeta didn't move immediately.

Vegeta showed a smirk as he followed Gohan's example. The two seized each other up for a moment as they wondered what type of attack to use first when suddenly the ship's intercom made a sound.

"Hostile ship is approaching!" Raditz said through the sound system. Gohan and Vegeta both looked up, their bodies frozen for a moment as their brains registered what was just said.

A violent tremor went through the ship. Gohan and Vegeta could only see the walls and floor giving a slight vibration but Turles and Nappa were both thrown off their feet. This made the two floating Saiyans realize the tremor was more dramatic than they first thought.

Gohan glanced to Vegeta but the man was already running through the doorway. The half-saiyan bit his lip and quickly followed the Saiyan prince. Nappa and Turles were not far behind them.

"What's going on?" Vegeta demanded as he ran into the control room.

"Someone is attacking us." Raditz responded right before another tremor ran through the ship. This time Gohan was slammed into the wall by the sheer force of it. The half-saiyan quickly held out his hands to catch his fall. He heard two groans and realized both Nappa and Turles also fell victim to the tremor and were now leaning against the wall as well.

"Report." Vegeta stated as he crossed the distance to the control room.

"A ship to the south of us. It came out of nowhere." Raditz stated as he pointed up at the screen that now showed a small red dot with a blue circle around it, the blue beaming threateningly. "We've been following Frieza from a distance but this ship is coming from an entirely different direction."

"It's a trap." Gohan whispered as he studied the screen.

Before he could finish his brief sentence, a second dot appeared on the screen and yet another violent tremor ran through the ship. Gohan was prepared for it this time and he only took a step backwards. The young warrior could feel his heart beating in his chest.

"Turles. Dodge the attacks!" Vegeta was already typing away on the control panel. Turles appeared next to the Saiyan prince in a second and followed the man's example.

"Raditz. Keep an eye on the enemy and our own status. Half-breed and Nappa, try to send some blasts with the small weaponry." Three voices called a response but the last one stayed quiet. "Half-breed, I didn't hear you." Vegeta added after a second. The man kept his eyes on the screen to search for the perfect angle. "Half-breed!"

"Yes!" Gohan snapped out of it and ran to a smaller computer screen. There he sat down and activated the small weaponry. There were several small weapons. They would not do as much damage as the one Vegeta was operating but they would slow the enemy down somewhat.

Just as Gohan was sitting down, Vegeta sent the first blast towards the hostile ship. They all looked at the screen to see whether the attack would hit or not. Gohan couldn't help but smile when the attack landed on the enemy's ship. Only on their shield, but it was something.

Vegeta was already sending the next one. He didn't leave the enemy any time to retaliate as he started sending out several blasts, all in a slightly different direction in order to attack them on several places.

Gohan stopped watching the screen so that he could focus on attacking the enemy himself. A tremor ran through the ship as their shield got another load from the enemy's weaponry. Gohan ignored his panicking mind and focused on his task. He had to make the enemy pay for attacking them.

The half-saiyan zoned out the rest of the sounds in the room and he focused mainly on the small screen in front of him. There he could see exactly where to aim his own gun in order to hit the enemy. The young warrior narrowed his eyes for a moment before pressing the button to send the blast.

He didn't look to see if the attack hit but instead immediately sent another one. Another tremor went through the ship but Gohan ignored it again. The young warrior sent another blast, and another, and another. He didn't stop. He couldn't stop to even look up because if he did he would allow his mind to think… And that would only lead to panicking thoughts. And these panicking thoughts would not be useful to him right now.

The young warrior managed to continue in this way until… Yet another violent shake of the ship made Gohan finally look up. A red light beamed through the room and the female voice of the ship announced the damage that was done by the latest attack.

Gohan looked over at Vegeta. The Saiyan prince pressed his lips together. "Keep going!" He yelled at the others. "We'll not let some stupid ship shoot us down!"

The half-saiyan looked back to his screen. He ignored how the ship started trembling slightly and how the red light continued to flicker importantly. The young warrior could feel his heart beating in his chest as he focused on attacking the enemy again and again. He didn't know much about these things but he did realize they were not doing well. They were being attacked from two sides and even though Turles tried hard to dodge, the hostile ships were too fast. Their technology just seemed faster.

Suddenly, without warning, Gohan's screen went black. Gohan looked over his shoulder at the big screen and realized that was black as well. He now also realized the red light was beaming so brightly the entire room was continuously bathed in red for a moment before returning to the normal state. The robotic voice mentioned several systems that were failing, the damage everywhere was at eighty percent or higher, and finally, that their shield was completely broken down.

Vegeta was frozen for a moment before he looked down at the control panel. He typed away for a bit in order to send yet another blast but the system mentioned their weaponry was damaged too badly to send another attack.

The Saiyan prince slammed his fists down on the control panel and let out an angry groan. "Damn it!" The man growled before he looked over at the panel again, searching for something that would safe them.

"Vegeta…" Turles muttered quietly when a red blast was sent in their direction. Vegeta looked up at the windows and he also noticed the red beam rapidly coming closer.

"Hold on to something." Vegeta ordered. "We're going to land on the nearest planet."

Gohan could feel a cold sensation in his stomach when he realized what Vegeta was saying. "Land?" He responded.

Vegeta didn't say anything as he typed away on the control panel. Gohan could feel the ship starting to shake heavily. The young warrior grabbed onto the chair he was sitting on. He couldn't help but recall how he felt as a young boy, only four years old, locked up in a space ship that started to shake all around him. The fear of the ship exploding, throwing him out into the vacuum that was the universe. The young warrior closed his eyes as he hugged the chair closely as the ship shook violently. He could hear a heavy crash and the chair was almost wrenched from his grip but he could hold on to it.

A silence fell. Gohan could feel his heart beating so heavily in his chest it felt like his entire body was making small jumps at every beat.

"Is everyone alright?" Vegeta's voice made Gohan open his eyes. The young warrior slowly got up as the others all voiced their own responses. "Half-breed?" Vegeta asked when he noticed Gohan didn't respond.

"I'm fine." Gohan said. He was a little shaky but he wasn't hurt. The young warrior looked around. The red light was still flashing but now Gohan could see the outlines of a dark planet. "What happened?"

"We made an unplanned landing." Vegeta responded. The man stepped closer to the others.

"An unplanned landing? You mean a crash landing?" Gohan corrected. "Why not just call it by its name."

Vegeta looked right at him. "And that's why your glass is always half-empty instead of half-full." He countered easily. Gohan sent the man a glare but didn't respond. Vegeta didn't really mind as he looked around. "Nobody's hurt?" He asked. The others all responded that they were fine. "Good. Okay. Turles. Check the system to see if the ship is intact. Nappa, Raditz, make a quick run around the ship to make sure nothing is too broken. Don't fix anything. Just note it and we'll take care of it later."

Raditz, Turles and Nappa all went to their tasks after voicing their agreement. Gohan waited patiently for his orders while Vegeta turned back to the control panel. The man started typing away on it and different symbols and screens appeared on the large screen. The young warrior waited for one more moment before he stepped closer.

"Orders?" Gohan asked.

"Change your pants."

"Vegeta."

"You just went through one of your worst fears, half-breed. Your heart is going five-thousand miles an hour. Take a moment to calm down. I don't need you right now." Vegeta responded without looking at him.

Gohan didn't want to admit that his heart was still beating so heavily he was worried he might get a heart attack. His skin was tingling slightly and he couldn't seem to stop his hands from trembling slightly. Still, he didn't want to be a liability. He wanted to help out. Do something.

"Is there anything I can do?" Gohan asked as he stepped closer.

Vegeta glanced over his shoulder now. The man studied Gohan briefly before turning back to the control panel. "Check the communication system and try to send out a message to any friendly receiver."

"Right." Gohan was happy to have anything to do. He went back to the computer and sat down. He knew exactly how to check if the communication system was still intact. It was easy to see that it was. The problem was detecting a receiver and the real problem would be detecting a friendly receiver. There was a large possibility that the receiver would be one of Frieza's ships. The one that attacked them in the first place. If the hostile ship found out they were still alive and kicking they would probably follow the warriors to the planet they landed on. Which brought Gohan to a question:

"Where are we?" Gohan asked as he turned to Vegeta.

"Planet Iokso or Planet Mars, if you want to speak human." Vegeta responded without looking back.

"So we were almost at planet Earth?" Gohan asked. The young warrior turned to Vegeta fully.

"Almost."

"Did you know the humans are thinking about moving humans to live on this planet?" Turles said as he looked up. The man was checking the systems to make sure everything was still intact. The fact that he hadn't said anything yet was a good message.

"I do." Vegeta chuckled as he typed away on the panel. "Idiots. They can't even take proper care of their own planet. Now they want to add another one?"

"Honestly. They should be happy they have a beautiful planet of their own." Turles responded as he lowered his gaze to the screen in front of him.

Gohan pressed his lips together as he studied Turles. It wasn't the first time he realized how much his comrades missed their own planet. The planet they grew up on: Planet Vegeta. Their planet, their family and their entire lives… Gone within just one second.

The young warrior thought about his own planet. The blue skies, the green grass, the beautiful flowers in every color imaginable and he could feel a warmth rising in his chest. He knew he loved his planet and he would do anything to save it.

Gohan turned his focus back to the screen in front of him. There would be no saving planet Earth if he couldn't even get off this planet alive. The problem was that he could not find a communication line. There was no space craft close enough to receive their call of distress. Of course not; the Milky Way was practically a waste land of which everyone in the universe assumed there were no valuable planets.

Everyone except Frieza.

Gohan did notice Frieza's ship and the two ships that attacked them and caused their ship to crash. He was not going to try and communicate with those ships though. They probably assumed the Saiyans died on this planet.

"Alright." Once everyone was back in the control room, Vegeta looked at each of them and asked for their individual reports. Turles mentioned that the shields were practically non-existent and their energy supply was very low since everything went into the battle. They were now recharging, using the energy given out by the sun of this solar system. Raditz and Nappa gave a brief description of everything that was broken but they were both pleased to inform that no walls or machines were destroyed. Lastly, Gohan told the others that he could find no other ship than Frieza's three ships to communicate with.

Vegeta blew out a sigh. "Okay. All in all, we have enough food and water to last us three months. The oxygen room is intact so we have an unlimited supply of oxygen. The sun is shining brightly enough here so we also have a proper supply of energy. The only problem is that we have to wait until the engines are fully charged before we can find out whether or not we can still fly. That's going to take at least twenty-four hours."

Gohan placed his head in his hand as he realized what was being said. Twenty-four hours would give Frieza more than enough time to attack planet Earth. They would arrive there way too late… If they could even leave this planet. What if they were stuck here? No space ship came to this area of the Northern Quatrain. Nobody was going to find them here.

The group decided to wash up, change their clothing and get something to eat. They were all silent as they showered and dressed. They were silent as they heated up packs with instant noodles and they also ate in silence.

"Vegeta." Gohan said once they were all done eating. They had been sitting in silence for a couple of minutes before Gohan broke it. "What are we going to do if the engines don't work anymore?"

Vegeta didn't answer straight away. He considered Gohan's question for a moment. "There are several options. The most appealing one is the universal phone we received on planet Earth. We can call that annoying human woman and have her sent Katy to us in a ship. I'm not sure if we are close enough to use the phone though and we might not have enough energy..." Vegeta slowly stopped talking and went completely silent.

Gohan realized why Vegeta did so. A sound. It was brief and very still but every Saiyan on the ship heard it. Gohan's body went cold for yet another time as he realized what the sound meant.

The ship gave a sudden violent jerk and the Saiyans were all thrown off their seats by it. Metallic sounds occurred all around them as they could feel something smashing into their ship.

The Saiyans all waited silently for what was going to happen next. And they didn't have to wait long as suddenly the screen in their room flickered on.

"Knock knock."

 ****** DBZ **** DBZ ******

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